Forever is good
by sofia-sama
Summary: Instead of Dean being the jock and Cas the nerd, it's the other way around. Dean has a crush on Cas who is a popular kid in their High School. Dean has to take care of little Sammy and he is constantly mocked at school just for being a nerd. [Destiel and Sabriel]
1. Paper Balls

**A/N: I asked on tumblr for ideas for a fic, and ciabattabatched gave me this idea. I hope you like it! Please let me know if you do like it (or if you hate it)**

* * *

Chapter 1 – Paper Balls

"Come on! Let's go!" One boy said as he raced down the hallway.

Dean looked at them. He had just avoided a group of people that would make his day as bad as one could imagine. He sighed and continued walking to his classroom.

His day was just in the middle. He still needed to go to History class and then go to work. He usually just worked at Bobby's Repair Shop, but today he promised he would also help Jo with her mother's bar "The Roadhouse". He was going to serve tables and earn a few more dollars. He needed the money and Jo needed the help, so he offered himself to go.

He walked down the hallway and entered his classroom. He sat in his usual spot, near the front row and started getting his books out.

The teacher walked in and he paid close attention.

"Good afternoon class! We're going to talk about Napoleon. Who knows who Napoleon was?" Mr. Lafitte asked.

No one was going to answer and the teacher looked around the room for someone to ask.

"No one? How about… Mr. Winchester?" He asked, with an encouraging smile.

Dean gulped. He didn't like participating in class. He already was mocked for his clothes and way of being; he didn't need to be mocked because he was cleaver too. But, Mr. Lafitte had always been kind to him, so he answered him.

"Napoleon Bonaparte was a French emperor who tried to take over the world." He said as simply as he could.

Mr. Lafitte nodded.

"That is correct. Do you know anything else about him?"

Dean was trying so hard. He didn't want to be mocked… Not again, but he couldn't lie to Mr. Lafitte.

"Yes, sir. He was made commander of the French army in Italy, where he forced Austria and its allies to make peace, in 1796. In 1798, Napoleon conquered Ottoman-ruled Egypt in an attempt to strike at British trade routes with India. He was stranded when his fleet was destroyed by the British at the Battle of the Nile. Napoleon returned to Paris where the government was in crisis. In November 1799, Napoleon became first consul. In 1802, he was made consul for life and two years later, emperor. He tried to invade England but failed." Dean said as quietly as possible.

Mr. Lafitte beamed.

"That is correct, Mr. Winchester. You should speak more often!"

The class continued and about five minutes later a few of his classmates started calling him.

"Winchester… Hey! Winchester!" They were speaking in a tone that was a bit bellow whispering. They were being as quiet as they could. Mr. Lafitte couldn't stand people talking in his class.

And Dean knew that. Which is why he has no idea why he looked at them.

"What?" He said quietly.

"Mr. Winchester… Do you wish to tell me why you can't concentrate on my classes?" Mr. Lafitte was now near Dean's sit.

"I'm sorry… I thought I heard my name being called." He tried to apologize.

"Even if the pope was calling you that wouldn't be a good excuse to not pay attention in my class!"

Dean shivered in his seat. He didn't want to cause trouble. He always tried to avoid trouble but trouble seemed to like him quite much.

"I'm sorry sir. It won't happen again." He tried to get out of trouble.

Mr. Lafitte nodded.

"It better not happen again."

And so he continued talking about Napoleon and how he tried to take over the world.

About five minutes later, a ball of paper hit the back of Dean's head.

_Just ignore it. Come on Dean, just ignore it._

And he was doing just fine, until the third paper ball hit him.

He turned his head and glared at the back of the classroom.

"Mr. Winchester, I take you know what I'm talking about too well, and that is why you keep turning back."

_Shit._

Dean turned to look at Mr. Lafitte.

"I'm sorry sir." He said sheepishly to Mr. Lafitte.

But the teacher was having none of it.

"This is the second time you're not paying attention in my class today, Mr. Winchester. I suggest you leave now, and come back next period."

Dean sighed. At least he wasn't going to detention.

Time seemed to pass faster once Dean got outside his classroom. He found himself a quiet place and took his history book out of his backpack. He started by reading what they were talking about at class, and soon he was doing what he assumed Mr. Lafitte was going to ask them to do for homework.

It's not like Dean liked to study. In fact he didn't like it all that much, but he needed to. He wanted to open his own business someday, and he was only going to get it if he studied hard enough.

What seemed too soon for Dean, seemed to take an eternity to rest of his classmates. The class ended and everyone started gathering outside, so Dean took the chance and entered the classroom again.

He waited until every colleague of his was gone to address Mr. Lafitte again.

"Sir, I'm really sorry about that…" Dean started.

Mr. Lafitte sighed and interrupted Dean.

"I know you are Dean. And you know I want to help you. That's why I sent you outside. They were throwing paper balls at you again, weren't they?"

Dean lowered his head.

"Yes." He whispered.

"You can't let them get to you, Dean. You can't fight back if you can't ignore them first." Mr. Lafitte had always been the one teacher that seemed to realize what his students did to Dean, and once he figured it out, he approached Dean and told him to ignore them. After that, he started trying to make the others believe he hated Dean and because of that he didn't want to even listen to him. He did the best he could to protect Dean.

"I know… And I tried!" Dean said exasperatedly. "But when the third ball hit me I lost it!"

"You need to practice your patience… Why don't you come by my place one of these days? I can help with that…" Mr. Lafitte offered.

Dean smiled softly.

"Thank you, sir… But I don't think that will be necessary."

"If you need someone to teach you to fight, you know where you can find me!" The teacher said, as Dean sat on his spot again.


	2. A very bad working afternoon

**A/N: I no nothing about cars and how they work. Thank you for your reviews, favorites and follows! I hope you enjoy this chapter! ^^ I'm gonna try and post a chapter twice a week. Maybe Mondays and Fridays... We'll see! :D**

* * *

Chapter 2 – A very bad working afternoon

He was late. Late for work, that is.

His boss was going to get angry at him… But not really. Bobby Singer once had been a good friend of John Winchester, and he because of old times' sake, he let Dean work at his mechanic repair shop.

He ran his way down the street to find Bobby under a car.

"Sorry Bobby!" Dean said as soon as he got there. "Mr. Lafitte asked me to stay after second period."

"It's okay, idjit, but next time try to be here on time! These cars aren't going to fix themselves!"

Dean smiled fondly at Bobby. He liked Bobby. He was family. Bobby was there when everything went down and he was there to help Dean get everything get back together again. When Dean was four, his mother died in a house fire. His dad was too depressed to help his own kids –Sammy was just two years old- get ready for the world. So Dean started becoming more and more like the Man of the house, while his father got the position of Drunk of the house. So Dean raised Sam and helped him understand what life was about. He was both the father and the mother to Sam. John still had his job, but he was drunk most of the time, therefore when the pay check got to him he would spend it on booze. When Dean was old enough, he begged Bobby to let him help at the car repair shop he owned, and the poor old man couldn't say no. He started to become part of their lives and soon Dean would ask him for help when their dad tried to steal Dean's money. Bobby was somehow their 'uncle' but he was also more than just that.

He got to work and soon he felt at ease again. He had always felt that when he was under the hood of a car.

Bobby told him he needed to go get something from the supply house and let Dean alone in repair shop.

Dean was only working for one more hour there and then he was heading to _The Roadhouse._

While he was trying to change the oils of the car, a bell rang so he went to help the client.

As soon as he reached the door he stopped.

_Shit._ There were three guys from his school. He wasn't friends with any of them –in fact he was only friends with two people at school: Jo Harvelle and Charlie Bradbury- actually one of the guys was from his History class.

"Is anyone where?" The taller one asked.

Dean gulped. He started walking towards them and stopped. They turned around to find Dean standing behind them.

The one with black hair smirked.

"Well, well, well… If it ain't Mr. Winchester who we have here…"

Dean was known in the whole school as Mr. Winchester. Why you ask, thinking that he is just a nerd who doesn't have friends and is mocked more than anyone ever should. Because every single person in school who has classes with him gets him in trouble and the teachers always refer to Dean as 'Mr. Winchester' so that was how he was known in middle school, and that name has stuck with him ever since.

"Can I help you?" Dean asked trying to sound professional.

"Yes, in fact, I hope you can. My car isn't working. And I need it to work. So do your dirty little job and make it work."

"Of course." At least they weren't insulting him… Just the job.

He got himself to do the job and started looking under the hood of the car. Everything was just fine with the car. That was except for the engine. There was a cable missing its usual place. He put it correctly and got to the boys again.

"It should be working now." He said quietly.

The owner of the car laughed.

"You heard that Alastair?_ It should be working now. _Why won't you go try it, Alastair?"

Alastair laughed and grabbed the keys.

"Let's see if it is working." He got inside the car and turned the engine on. The car made a sweet purr and was working.

Dean smiled.

"See that, Crowley? _It's working_!" Alastair mocked.

Crowley grinned.

"Yeah it is… We need to head back now." He said as he started walking into the car.

"Hey!" Dean said, walking fast to grab Crowley's jacket. "Aren't you going to pay?"

The guys just laughed.

"Why would we pay you?" Azazel asked with malice in his tone.

Dean was getting angrier and angrier by the second. He did his job and now he wanted his money. It was simple as that.

"You have to pay me. I did my job, now it's your turn!" He said angry.

But the boys only laughed, and got inside Crowley's car.

"Come on!" He said to them, as they started the car and drove away.

_You're such an idiot, Winchester! You should have known better!_

Bobby decided to show up again and saw Dean standing there.

"I don't pay you to look around, you idjit." But when he reached Dean's side, he stopped. He saw how angry Dean looked. "What happened, boy?"

Dean's eyes met Bobby's.

"Some guys from school asked me to check their car and went away without paying."

Bobby seemed to understand. He patted Dean's back.

"We've got a camera, I'll report them to the police and they will pay, don't worry…"

Dean nodded, still angry at himself for not being able to make them pay for himself.

* * *

"This one is for table four." Jo told him.

He nodded and grabbed the food.

"Thanks Jo." He walked towards table four and gave the patrons their order. "Three burgers with chips and a salad, here you go."

He walked back to Jo, and rested his head on the wall that was behind her.

"You alright, Dean?" She asked him. "You are quite good at serving tables. If you want to come here and help me some more… You know where _The Roadhouse_ is."

Dean smiled.

"Thanks Jo."

The door swung open and three guys entered. The sat in Dean's section so he moved there to attend them.

"Good afternoon, what will be your order?" Dean asked them.

"I want to eat chocolate mousse! And pie! And… do you have ice cream?" One of them asked.

Dean looked at the guys at the table and Dean recognized them as students from his High School. The one who talked, he recognized as being Gabriel Novak, one year older than Dean himself.

_What's with everyone and coming to my work place today?!_

"There's only strawberry ice cream. What kind of pie do you want?" Dean asked, taking notes in his note pad.

Gabriel was thinking hard. He couldn't decide on just one.

"Apple… No! Blueberry! No! Cherry!" It was starting to be strange… Every kind of pie the guy said he took it back and choose a new one.

"Enough, Gabe!" The older one said.

Gabriel laughed.

"Sorry, Balthy… It's just… There are so many flavors! How can I choose just one?"

The one in the middle rolled his eyes.

"Just choose a damn flavor!" He told Gabriel.

"Ok, ok, Cassie! I'm choosing… Apple Pie! Gotta go for the traditional!"

Dean was chuckling a bit by now. He saw himself in Gabriel. Every time he had to choose, he had a hard time to choose a flavor. And in the end he would most likely choose Apple Pie.

But the boys didn't seem to think the situation that funny.

"Are we amusing you?" The middle one, the one and only -Dean's crush- Castiel Novak, with an annoyed expression on his face.

Dean's smile turned into a deep blush.

"S-Sorry. What are you having?" He asked Castiel and Balthazar, embarrassed for taking the order of his crush.

"I want a cheese burger with chips." Castiel said.

Dean started taking notes again.

"And you?" He asked Balthazar, the older Novak.

"Oh, me… I want the same thing Cassie asked for."

"Alright…" Dean doubled that order. "What will you want for drinks?"

"I want a coke!" Gabriel said happily. "And I bet Cassie wants water."

Castiel nodded.

Dean looked at Balthazar expectantly.

"I want a coke too."

Dean checked the order and went away to get their food to be done. Then he went to get their drinks.

He walked back to their table and placed the drinks in from of them. Unfortunately one of the cokes slipped his hand and it fell on Castiel, when Dean was trying to place it in front of Gabriel.

"WHAT THE-!" Castiel complained… Very loudly.

"I-I'm sorry!" Dean apologized and tried to clean Castiel's shirt with a napkin.

"DON'T TOUCH ME! YOU'RE DOING EVEN WORSE! UGH!" And so he got up and walked away from The Roadhouse.

Balthazar and Gabriel were laughing.

"We're going to take the order home, if that's possible." Balthazar asked.

Dean was blushing hard. He was _very_ mortified. The first time he talked to his crush… And this happened. How could he even hope to even get Castiel to notice him again?

"Yes. I'm so sorry!" He said lowering his head, to hide his blush.

"Oh my God, Balthy! He's blushing!" Gabriel said and they laughed even harder.

Dean got away from their table as fast as he could.

He got their stuff and put them into some bags so they could take it home. He went for their table and –he learned with Crowley- before he handed them their food he asked for the payment.

"It's fifteen dollars."

The guys handed him the money and he gave them their food.

And so they left.


	3. Another day at achool

**A/N:** **I want to thank _Katsy17, becca65d, supernaturaal _and _spn bitches _for your reviews.** You make my day :3** For everyone that followed this story so far, don't be shy and review whenever you read it.** I just want to know the opinions of the readers. I appreciate that you followed the story, but I don't know what you think if you don't review it. **Everyone who favorited, thank you so much 3** It means a lot to me! **As I previously said, I will start posting on Fridays and possibly Mondays**, I'm not entirely sure I can _always_ post twice a week, but I can try :D So, if I do post twice a week, I hope you will review everytime :3

**Again, THANK YOU ALL!**

Also, I haven't really said anything about their ages, so here it goes: _Dean is 15; Castiel is 15; Sam is 13; Gabriel is 16; Balthazar is 17; Charlie and Jo are also 15_... If anyone else comes along and you want to know how old they are, just ask me! ^^ This story is a bit slow, so please don't give up on this story... I want to make it worth a while and I wanted a challenge, so I decided to take this story slow and make it as believable as possible... Now, please enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Chapter 3 – Another day at school

Dean didn't want to go back to school. He knew Crowley and his gang would be after him for telling the police they hadn't paid. He knew Castiel would be angry, and he had seen Castiel angry with other people before. It wasn't pretty.

Sam had school and Dean didn't want to let him go by himself. And he also needed to go to school because midterms were coming and he had some doubts about some subjects.

Sam and Dean walked to school -Dean couldn't drive yet… he was learning but he still didn't have his driving license- together. They parted ways when they reached different ways. Dean promised to walk with Sam back home.

And so he started walking to his own school. It was only a block away, but he wanted to be there early, so that he could avoid bullies. But his luck wasn't exactly the best luck. He had just stepped inside the school building when someone grabbed his shirt and shoved him to the wall.

Dean didn't have the time to think, he just acted by instinct. He closed his eyes and raised his arms so that he could protect his face.

"What? Mr. Winchester is scared?" It was one of the many people that usually greeted Dean by bullying him. Today the first one to do it was Gordon Walker.

The school hierarchy has always been a bit messed up. At the bottom were nerds and people like Dean that wore tattered clothes and tried to avoid everyone else. Above them were the people no one cared about, so they weren't mocked not did bully anyone. Then, there were only three more places. The third from the bottom was reserved for the clowns, people who were always pulling pranks on the others; The second was for bullies. And the first place was for the somewhat king of the school. The jock that made everyone shiver when they upset him. Everyone followed orders the King, there was some kind of a book that had some rules people had to follow. Dean didn't know about that when he got to his freshman year. He just showed up and did something against the rules… He became friends with a nerd *coughs* Charlie *coughs*. And so, he went to the bottom of the hierarchy. He already had a past in his last school where he was made fun of his clothes and for being way too attentive in classes… So one could say that his reputation pursued him.

The King of the school is the youngest Novak, Castiel. Everyone obeys to him, and everyone respects him. So naturally, Gordon and his little gang, Crowley and his little gang… Everyone and their little gang act under Castiel Novak's orders.

_Think on the bright side, Dean… He has known you since forever!_ Dean thought to himself.

When Dean was going to take a breath he felt a punch in his stomach. He felt sick and his stomach hurt. He bent down when Gordon's fist touched him. As usual, Dean didn't make a sound. He knew that only made people enjoy beating him more and more if he started sounding weaker.

After a few more punches, Gordon let go of Dean.

Dean was getting ready for his PE class in the locker room when Castiel walked inside. Dean had just taken his shirt off and was looking for his school t-shirt on his locker.

Castiel walked past him, not even looking at him. Dean sighed, relieved that Castiel hadn't seen him.

But since Dean was alone in the locker room before, Castiel heard the sound of his sighing and looked at Dean.

After a few seconds of looking at Dean he recognized him.

"YOU!" Castiel yelled and Dean flinched.

Castiel didn't seem to notice Dean flinch because he got himself closer to Dean and yelled some more.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO RUINED MY SHIRT!"

Dean started to apologize.

"I am so sorry! The glass slipped my hand! It was an accident."

"Yeah… Me ruining your face is going to be an accident too!" Castiel wasn't yelling anymore, he was smiling mischievously.

-Again- By instinct he closed his eyes and tried to protect his face.

He waited for the hit. But it never came. When he opened his eyes, Castiel's blue eyes were looking at him with a frown.

"Are you really that scared of me?" He asked curiously.

Dean gulped. But didn't answer, he just lowered his face to avoid Castiel's gaze.

That seemed to make Castiel angry.

"ANSWER TO ME!" He yelled at Dean.

Again, Dean flinched.

"I'm scared of everyone at this school." He admitted in a barely audible whisper.

But Castiel heard it. He looked genuinely intrigued by that statement.

"Why is that?"

Dean looked up, so see Castiel's face tilt slightly. _Cute._ He blushed deeply at his thoughts.

Dean looked back to the floor.

"Because I formed the wrong friendships accordingly to the schools' guide book. I befriended a geek and because my reputation pursues me." He said very uncomfortably. He didn't like to talk to other people, especially about himself. And being there, standing in front of _Castiel_ talking to him, about himself… It made Dean feel weird.

The head tilt was even more obvious now.

"What kind of reputation?"

Dean didn't want to answer, but he was scared of what Castiel would do to him.

"I'm a 'good boy' I work hard to get good grades, and I don't wear the nicest clothes one can have. So people like to get me in trouble…"

Castiel nodded in understanding.

"And that gives you a reputation?" He asked with a laugh.

Dean didn't know if Castiel was making fun of him or if was just amused by the situation… Either way he didn't want to piss Castiel off.

"I'm really sorry about your shirt…" Dean said again.

Castiel huffed.

"I had just bought that shirt. And I really liked it! Now the stain won't leave!"

"I can make coke stains go away. If you let me I can get your shirt cleaned." He just wanted Castiel to leave his personal space, he was still slightly afraid of him, and he didn't want to risk being too close to Castiel to the point of getting hit for being the closest 'thing' around.

"That's the least you could do." Castiel agreed, annoyed. "I'll get you the shirt tomorrow. And you better not make it worse!"

Dean nodded.

Castiel backed down a bit, and Dean relaxed a bit. He felt better when he was alone. He didn't like people around to remind him how much better than him they were.

Dean got back to the task of finding his t-shirt. He found it and put it on. When he turned back, Castiel was gone.


	4. Home Sweet Home

**A/N: I wasn't sure if this would be the best movie... But my friend told me to go with it... Thank you for all the reviews and favorites and follows :3 you guys are awesome! I hope you like this chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 4 – Home Sweet Home

Castiel gave Dean his shirt the next day, and when Dean got home cleaning it was the first thing he did. After that he just went through with his homework and helped Sam doing some pretty difficult math problems.

After that Dean just let Sam pick a movie and they both watched it. Sam had picked one of his favorite movies of all times, in part he just wanted to annoy Dean with his choice, but he knew his brother better than that… He knew that deep down, Dean loved this. He had picked the first High School Musical. He liked to sing and dance along with Troy, while he heard Dean complaining about the movie, but when Troy started to sing, he could see Dean's lips moving along with the lines… So, when he sensed his brother tense up, he would just ask for this movie to be on, and the tension would be released.

Half way through the movie, Charlie called Dean and when she heard the television sound, she almost yelled to the cell-phone.

"Dean! You're watching High School Musical without me?!"

Dean chuckled.

"Sammy really wanted to see it… Besides, we have to take the opportunity when Dad's not at home yet. You know that as soon as he gets home he just takes the remote away from us… We have to stop everything that we're doing to let him watch whatever the hell he wants…"

Charlie sighed.

"I know… Sorry… It's just that Ashley Tisdale looks hot in those movies…"

Dean rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. So does Zac Efron." He told her, smiling.

They both liked to play around, and playing around with each other was the best.

As the conversation continued, Dean started hearing the purr of the impala stopping.

"Shit. Dad's home. I'll talk to you later, Charlie."

They weren't wealthy, but with Dean working for Bobby and occasionally helping Jo, he got himself enough money to get a cell phone. Their father might be an alcoholic, but he likes to be an alcoholic in front of a TV screen, so they had a pretty decent TV at their place, and a couple of scary movies because that's how John Winchester likes to spend a good afternoon. Dean was now saving up to buy a computer that he would share with Sam.

They paused the movie quickly and started gathering everything that was out of place. Dean sent Sam to their room as his dad entered the house.

He opened the door and Dean knew this wasn't going to end well.

"You fucker! You were using my TV weren't you, you useless peace of shit?!"

Dean looked back and saw that he missed the 'pause' button, and instead he hit the 'mute button'.

_SHIT! I can't believe I hit the wrong button!_

"What the fuck is that on the screen?! You fucking gay!" Dean flinched at his words. He should be used by now… But he obviously wasn't. "If you wanna watch men dancing around and shaking their dicks, then go to a FUCKING MONSTER CLUB! That's where you belong!"

Dean lowered his head. He wasn't ashamed of himself… No, that wasn't it… His fists clenched, his nails were starting to dig in his flesh. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He was trying not to go and give a high five to his dad's face… With as much strength as he could…

No, he wouldn't do that… Things would be worse… And he couldn't do that… Not with Sammy in the house.

"What? You won't even try to fucking defend yourself?! You're such a pussy, Dean! I am ashamed of calling you my son…" His father continued.

As usual, Dean tried to think about something else. Anything. Just something to make him stop and not go after his father. Fathers aren't supposed to be offensive; they are supposed to care about their sons… At least that's what Dean always told himself. He wanted to believe it, but his father's words still hurt. He knew better than to believe in him, but it still hurt to hear them.

"I'm sorry… It was for a project." Dean mumbled, trying to sound confident, he didn't want his father to hit him.

"Yeah, sure Dean! And I'm Santa Claus! You can't fool me, you little shit! You better never lie to me again!" John punched the wall. "You better not watch this thing again! If I so much catch you thinking about it, you're going to suffer!"

_Stay calm Dean. Just nod… You just need to nod._

He did as he commanded himself. He raised his head slightly and nodded.

His father looked pleased by that action.

"And where is Sam?" While John never even tried to care about Dean, he had a bit of a soft spot for Sam, but it was just when he wasn't all that intoxicated.

"He's studying." Dean lied. It was better this way. He could keep his father thinking his brother wasn't watching it with him, while he took all the blame. It was the right thing to do, protect his baby brother.

John nodded.

"You should be studying too, your brother is so much better than you little fag." He said shaking his head.

It was becoming a bit too much for Dean. His heart was hurting by so many harsh words from his father.

"I know… I'm going to study now." He said as he excused himself upstairs to his shared bedroom.

Dean and Sam shared a bedroom. There were nights where they would just pretend to be happy, but there were nights where Dean would just put himself in front of his brother to protect him from his father's hand, shoe, belt... Anything he had in his hands actually.

He opened the door to their room and got himself inside.

"I'm sorry, Dean!" Sam jumped to him. He didn't mean for John to catch them watching the movie… He just wanted to spend some time with his brother… "I didn't mean for him to catch us!"

Sam was almost in tears.

Dean held Sam close.

"Hey… Calm down. I'm okay…" Dean said as he tried to sooth his brother. "He didn't do anything to me."

It was a common thing. Every time John got angry, Dean would be his punching bag. He would always save Sammy. Never wanting for him to get hurt. He knew just how much his father could hurt him when he was angry… He didn't want Sam to get hurt like that too.

"He might have done nothing, but I heard him, Dean… I know just how mean he was to you! And it's my fault! I should have suggested another movie! If it had been one horror movie he would have at least approved of it! I'm sorry Dean!"

Dean sighed. He pulled his brother as close as he could.

"I know, Sammy. Let's just stay here for now… I'll go cook us dinner in a while." Dean assured Sam.

He could feel his brother still shaking, but he was by far much more relaxed now.


	5. Just Run!

**A/N: I just wrote this, I've been supper busy with school and I'm finishing NaNoWriMo, so it was difficult to write anything in the past few days that wasn't for my novel. I hope you like this chapter, it's just basically a filler, I know, but I really wanted to write something for you. Look who is early! Happy thanksgiving, everyone!**

* * *

Chapter 5 – Just run!

He walked to school and he tried to avoid the bullies. For once he could actually avoid them. He went all the other directions whenever he saw one of those familiar faces.

He spotted Charlie next to his locker. He smiled and walked to her.

"Hey Charlie!" He greeted with a smile.

Charlie glanced her eyes to him and smiled back.

"Winchester! I'm glad you're ok!" She said. "Your dad didn't catch you yesterday, I see…"

Besides being Dean's best friend, Charlie knew everything that John did to Dean. Not because Dean ever told her, but because she would see marks on him and figure it out. Or just by the way he was standing… She was just a genius.

"Not exactly. I hit mute instead of 'pause', so he saw Troy dancing around with the Wildcats." Dean mumbled, trying not to sound too affected by the memory.

"God, I'm sorry to hear that… But he didn't hit you did he?" Charlie asked out of concern.

Dean shook his head.

"No, but he gave me a lecture about how gay the movie actually is…"

Charlie smiled.

"He is right you know… High School Musical is the gayest movie Disney has ever made." She told him.

"I guess you're right…"

"What is that?" Charlie asked pointing to a plastic bag that Dean had in his hand.

"This is Castiel's shirt. The one I ruined…" Dean told her.

"Oh! You did that magic trick you always do to save it?" Dean nodded. "You always save my cosplays! I don't know what I would do if it wasn't for you!"

Dean chuckled lightly.

"You would probably be the same, except that you would have all your clothes full of stains…"

"That is just true, Dean!" She agreed with him.

Dean glanced at his clock.

"I better get going. I'm going to try and put this in front of Castiel's locker."

Walking around the school, avoiding bullies and trying to reach Castiel's locker was hard. Every single one of them was trying to impress the 'King' so that they could be a bit higher in the hierarchy. Usually Dean avoided the zone, trying not to be caught by those guys. But today was the day he really needed to go there leave the bag and walk away.

"Mr. Winchester! Fancy seeing you here!" Crowley mocked.

Dean flinched lightly.

"Good morning." He tried to be polite, so that they would just mock it and leave. But no, everyone liked to do the exact opposite of what Dean wanted.

"Good morning, he says!" Alastair repeated with a laugh.

Dean tried to even his breathing pattern.

_Come on Dean, let the air in, let the air out. Just breathe._

"What are you doing here, Mr. Winchester?" Azazel asked him. "We never see you at this side of the school!"

Dean gulped.

"I'm just here to return something." He just wanted to give the shirt back to Castiel.

Dean tried to walk away from them, motioning to Castiel's locker.

"What is that in your hands?" Crowley asked.

"It's a shirt." Dean spoke so low that it was barely above a whisper.

"A shirt?" Crowley repeated. "Why are you carrying a shirt with you?"

Dean wanted to run away. He didn't want trouble. But he didn't want to face Castiel… Because he was afraid of the mighty King, even if he had a crush on the so called mighty King.

"I'm returning it to someone." Dean said.

"And who are you returning it to?" Dean didn't answer, which made the trio angry. "Answer when I ask you something!"

"I'm returning it to Castiel." Dean spoke.

Everyone stared at him.

It was Azazel who broke the silence.

"Yeah, sure… As if Castiel would just lend you a shirt!"

The other boys laughed.

"Now tell me the truth!" Crowley demanded.

"He didn't lend it to me. I got it dirty, so I cleaned it…" Dean told him.

That seemed to make Crowley stop laughing.

"Oh! You're his maid! You clean his clothes! Of course, you're just a peasant after all…" He smirked. "What would Castiel say if the stain was still there?"

Alastair barked out a laugh.

"I bet he would be angry…"

Azazel smirked.

"And what do you think he would do if Mr. Winchester here handed him the shirt with a few words on it?"

Dean's eyes grew wider.

"Please don't." He asked.

But those boys were just there for the fun.

"How about… 'Dean hearts Castiel'?" Alastair asked.

"Or maybe… Just drawings…" Azazel added.

"Why won't we do both?" Crowley asked.

Dean didn't want that to happen. He hold the bag as tightly as he could and ran away. Yeah, it was a bit coward of him to run away. But he couldn't have any of those things happening.

He turned a corner and bumped into someone.

The plastic bag still in his hold and he just continued running away, yelling a '_I'm Sorry!' _to whoever he bumped into.

Dean ran and ran until he found his safe place. He was in Mr. Lafitte's office.

"Good morning, Dean… I see you're having your morning run…" Mr. Lafitte commented.

"I'm sorry to just run inside without knocking, but I need you to help me." It was never easy for Dean to ask anyone's help, and Mr. Lafitte knew it.

"What's wrong Dean?" He asked suddenly getting up to his feet and walking to Dean.

Dean, who was panting from running, tried to catch his breath before talking.

"Crowley and his friends wanted to get me in trouble."

Mr. Lafitte frowned.

"What kind of trouble?"

"They wanted to write and draw things on Castiel's shirt." Dean said as he raised his hand, showing the bag to Mr. Lafitte.

"Why do you have a shirt that belongs to Castiel?" He asked.

Dean raised his head.

"Because I kinda ruined it and promised I would get it cleaned." Dean explained.

"Oh… So getting it written would be awful…" Mr. Lafitte agreed.

Dean looked to the windows that showed the gardens their school had.

"I need you to give this to him." Dean asked.

Mr. Lafitte nodded.

"I think it's best if I hand it to him."

"Mr. Novak!" Mr. Lafitte called.

Castiel turned his head to look at the teacher.

"Yes, Mr. Lafitte." Castiel walked towards the teacher. "Do you want anything from me?"

Mr. Lafitte sighed.

"No… But I have something for you."

Castiel tilted his head.

"What could you possibly have that is for me?" He inquired.

Mr. Lafitte didn't answer. He held the plastic bag and handed it to Castiel.

"What is this?" Castiel asked, taking the bag.

"I believe, Mr. Winchester said that it was your shirt."

"My shirt?" Castiel opened the plastic bag and scanned it. "Oh! This shirt."

A few seconds of silence were put to an end by Castiel.

"Why didn't he gave it to me directly?"

Mr. Lafitte laughed slightly at Castiel's confusion.

"He was being chased by someone who wanted to ruin the shirt to make you hate him. He said he ran as fast as he could to save the shirt, he even bumped into someone."

Castiel looked Mr. Lafitte in the eyes.

"He bumped into me."

* * *

**So this is it for today, guys! I have a huge math test tomorrow, so I will be really stressed after it. I'm going to finish my novel and then I'm going to continue my other story 'Who Kissed Me?!' if you haven't read it yet, I recommend it. I'm loving that story, but this is easier to write, the chapters are not that big, and they kinda just come. The other one is ending and I need some pretty important things happening.**

**Anyway, I hope you like this story so far! I'm amazed by the amount of people who are following this story! I wasn't expecting it to happen! I have almost 50 people following this! Thank you all for following/ favoriting and thank you to those three very kind, very awesome people who reviewed last chapter!**

**When you review you make me want to write more! So, tell me what you think so far! ^^ Thank you for reading! I'll see you on Monday!**


	6. Caught in a lie

**A/N: Hello! I am going to post chapters the day before I had told you... Usually I'm too excited to wait for the next day, so I will basically post the chapters when I finish them... I am writing again 'Who Kissed Me?!' so if you're reading that fic too there is a new chapter for you to read. If you're not reading the story, you're the one who is losing, I ask you to at least check the story out!**

* * *

Chapter 6 – Caught in a lie

Dean was standing in an empty classroom. There were too many people outside, and he didn't want to risk and bump into Crowley again, so he was standing there alone.

He decided to sit down, there were so many empty chairs, but he settled for one in the front row. He took his notebook out of his backpack and started reading what they had been talking about in the last class. Despite Dean trying his best to pay attention in that one class he was nervously thinking if Mr. Lafitte had been able to give Castiel his shirt. He was scared that Crowley would find a way to snatch it from Mr. Lafitte and drabble on it to later hand it to Castiel… He felt sick just by thinking about it…

The door swing open and Dean jumped slightly at the intrusion.

"Why didn't you give the shirt to me in person?" Castiel asked after he closed the door behind himself and started walking to Dean.

He already knew why… But he wanted Dean to tell him himself.

Dean gulped.

"I'm sorry… I was late for class…" Dean lied. He didn't want Crowley to find out he had spilled what he did to him; he would most likely hit him… "So I asked Mr. Lafitte to give you shirt when I saw him in the hallway."

Castiel stared at Dean.

"You're lying." Cas said shaking his head.

Dean looked at Castiel in disbelief.

"How do you know that?" He asked.

Castiel stared into Dean's too green to be true eyes.

"Because you were running from someone this morning…" Castiel explained.

Dean tried to save himself.

"I was just late for class…"

"No… You also bumped into someone…" Castiel said, trying to see if Dean knew who he had bumped into.

"Yeah… I was really late…"

Castiel sighed.

"You were running, ten minutes before class, in the hallways and you bumped into me… Were really that late?"

Dean's eyes widened.

"That was you?" Castiel nodded. "I'm so, so sorry!" Dean apologized himself with a pleading look.

Castiel frowned.

"You already said that this morning… Why are you repeating yourself?"

"Because I bumped into you!" Dean said, trying to make Castiel understand.

"Well… You already apologized, so I don't see why you need to do it again…"

"Oh… Okay.." Dean said, as he stared at the tabled.

"You did take the stain away…" Castiel said.

Dean smiled slightly.

"I promised I would, didn't I?" He asked.

"You did, but I didn't really believe you…" Castiel explained.

Dean's face dropped.

"So you were expecting me to fail?" Dean asked.

"I was going to torture you for failing…" Castiel admitted. "But you did it, so you took all the fun away!"

"I'm sorry…" Dean said quickly, he didn't want to piss of Castiel.

"Again, why are you apologizing?" Castiel asked.

Dean raised his stare to Castiel.

"I don't want to make you mad… And you said you wanted to torture me, but since I didn't fail, I expect you are going to be even worse with me…" Dean explained.

Castiel smirked.

"You really are afraid of me… Sometimes I forget that…"

Dean's mouth fell open. He didn't know why Castiel was smirking, and it scared him… A smirk never came along, usually it was followed by mean words and physical pain… So he closed his eyes and waited for the pain to arrive.

A few minutes passed and nothing happened.

Slowly he opened his eyes, only to find Castiel sitting in front of him with an amused expression on his face.

"Don't let me stop you, by all means, I can stay here watching you fear me all day!"

"Why didn't you do anything to me?" Dean asked, a bit afraid of the answer.

Castiel rolled his eyes.

"We are in the middle of school… I don't want a suspension!" He explained.

Most jocks were dumb people, but Castiel was known for his brains. He was the King for some reason. He was always the one with the best plans to torture someone, the one to have the master plan for hunting the weak.

"And I love psychological fear…" He admitted. "Well… Back to what's important… Why were you running this morning?"

Dean gulped. He really didn't want Crowley to be mad… But it was Castiel the one that could hurt him the most, so he opted for the truth.

"I- Someone was trying to get your shirt full of drabbles and drawings… So I ran from them, before they could do either of the above." Dean said carefully to not give away the names of the ones following him.

"Why did they want to do that? Did they think it was your shirt?" Castiel was playing dumb, he just wanted to see what Dean was willing to tell.

"No… They knew it was your shirt." Dean admitted. "They thought you would end me if the shirt was worse than before."

Castiel nodded.

"Alright… And who was willing to ruin my shirt to make you pay?" He asked the final question. The one Dean was hoping he wouldn't ask. The one Castiel wanted to know if Dean was willing to answer.

"Hmmm… They… I don't know their names…" Dean lied.

"Bullshit." Castiel cut him quickly. "You know exactly their names… I can see the fear in your eyes. What are you scared of now, Dean?"

Dean stopped breathing for a second.

"You know my name?" He asked.

"No, I just called you that because I felt like doing so… What do you think, assbutt?"

"Sorry… I didn't know you knew my name, that is all…" Dean explained. "How do you know my name?"

"We have had classes together in the past…" Castiel admitted. "…But I only knew your last name, I found your first name today when Mr. Lafitte handed me my shirt."

Dean looked at him wide eyed.

"You remember having classes with me?"

"I'm not exactly asleep in classes… And you have been the one person who gets kicked around the school the most… I know the infamous Mr. Winchester… But I have no idea who 'Dean' is…" Castiel explained.

"Oh… I see…"

"You know my name, right?" Dean nodded. "Why don't you ever use it?"

"I didn't know if I was supposed to call your name… I'm a bit of a loser around here…" Dean said bitterly. "And your name is a bit mouthful…" He said, quickly he hit his own mouth, he took a deep breath before continuing. "I mean… No offense! It's a beautiful name, but it's a bit mouthful…"

Castiel found Dean to be very strange. He was always afraid, and trying to make himself look invisible. It made Castiel intrigued by Dean. He wanted to understand this person. And he wanted to have some fun while doing so…

"Then what do you suggest?" Castiel asked amused, wanting to see what Dean would come up with. His brothers usually said the same thing, and just called him 'Cassie' which he dreaded.

Dean looked at the table, thinking hard. A few seconds later, he looked back at Castiel with a tine smile.

"How about Cas?" He asked.

Castiel frowned.

"Cas?" Dean nodded. "It doesn't sound as bad as Cassie… If you want you can call me Cas…" Castiel declared.

"Alright, Cas…"

Cas raised himself from the chair and started walking away.

"I still want to know who was chasing you, Dean… When you feel like talking come to me and tell me." And so he left.

Dean stared at the closed door, that Cas left behind.

"Did I just became friends with him?" Dean asked himself in disbelief.

* * *

**I hope you liked this chapter! Some people asked for them to interact, so I came up with this! ^^ Those of you who wished me luck for my math test... It didn't go well... I think I'm going to fail the test... TT_TT Anyway, THANK YOU for those who favorited and followed this story! THANK YOU for those who review the story! And above that, THANK YOU for taking your time and reading the story! It would be awesome if every reader actually reviewed, but I know that sometimes we just can't review... But it means the world to me when people actually review!**


	7. Home isn't safe

Chapter 7 – Home isn't safe

"Come on, Dean! Wake up!" Sam called. "I don't want to be late for school!"

Dean wasn't exactly a morning person. He liked to sleep in, to stay in the comfort of his own bed. But he knew that he needed to get up and actually go to school. His brother liked to walk with him to school and he wasn't going to give that up just so he could be a little more in his bed. He liked to walk slowly, instead of rushing and having to say goodbye to Sammy too soon.

He quickly got up and ran to the bathroom, there weren't many clothes for him to take off, just a black shirt and his boxers. He jumped into the shower and about five minutes later he was finishing his breakfast.

"Come on, Sammy!" He said as Sam ate his breakfast. "I thought you didn't want to be late for school!" He mocked with a smile.

Sam sent him one of his famous 'bitch-faces', being this one bitch-face number one.

"I'm almost done…" He said his eyes never leaving Dean. He was trying to swallow his food as fast as he could.

Dean motioned to start cleaning the kitchen, not wanting his father to come and punish him for having things all messed up around the kitchen. But he was too late.

John came inside the small kitchen area with only a plain shirt and his boxers on. His face said it all. He had been drinking during the night.

"Why is this shit all around?" John asked.

It wasn't all that messy… Actually it was just Dean's dish and a pan… But still, for John nothing was ever enough.

"I was just going to clean everything…" Dean said as me moved faster to get things done, rather sooner than later.

"You should have done that before eating!" John yelled at him. He sat on his chair and looked at Dean expectantly. Once he realized Dean hadn't moved ever since his last sentence he yelled angrily at Dean. "DO YOU THINK MY BREAKFAST IS GOING TO COOK ITSELF, BOY? GO AND DO SOMETHING USEFUL YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

Dean flinched and started doing what his father had asked him.

Sam lowered his head and finished his cereals quietly. He tried to take as much time as he could, to keep his brother company. He knew their father would send him to school as soon as he finished.

"Are you done yet?" John asked his younger son.

Sam slowly raised his eyes and shook his head.

"Then you better hurry up… I don't want you getting late for school."

Dean was giving his best to cook his father bacon and eggs, but everyone in the house knew that Dean wasn't exactly the best cook in the world, though he tried.

Once he thought it was done, he started putting John's breakfast in a plate and handed it to him.

John took a fork and started digging in his food. After the first bite he looked at Dean, his face full of anger. He spat everything he had in mouth to Dean's face.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!" He demanded. "YOU CALL THIS BREAKFAST? I CALL THIS A PIECE OF SHIT…" John calmed down for a few seconds, before smirking. "What was I expecting? You can never do anything good… Even what you cool is like you, worthless, shit, awful."

Dean cleaned his face quickly.

"I'm sorry…"

John went back to full anger mode.

"YOU'RE SORRY?! YOU THINK I FUCKING CARE THAT YOU ARE SORRY!?" He asked. "YOU ONLY GIVE ME EXPENSES! YOU ARE USELESS!" He grabbed the first thing he could reach – his plate – and threw it at Dean. Dean bent over and the plate fell to the ground behind him, every piece of it ricocheting on the ground ending up in different places of the kitchen floor. "YOU DARE AVOIDING PUNISHMENT?!" John yelled at Dean, clearly, John had been drinking more than just one bottle during the night. "I DON'T WANT YOU TO EVEN THINK ABOUT THAT! YOU NEED TO LEARN YOUR PLACE, BOY!"

And so he threw his knife at Dean. Dean didn't dare moving. Not this time. He was too scared of what John would do if he dared to move again.

Sam was used to his father being violent, but he had never gotten to the point of throwing knifes. Once the knife hit Dean, Sam rose from his seat.

"That's enough Dad! If you want, I can cook you breakfast!" He offered. His brother had a knife stuck in his upper right arm, blood was now starting to show up and he didn't want his father to throw another one.

_This can't be true… This can't be true! He didn't do it… He… He didn't… Why… Why a knife? My arm is hurting so bad. I could feel the knife digging in my arm… I want to run… I want to leave this place… But I can't leave Sammy here… Not alone with him… Who knows what he would do once I was gone… With no one to pick on… Sammy would be the one who would get hurt… I can't have that happening… Not now… not ever… I need to stay… I need to find a way to take us out of this place._

Dean's head was spinning. His arm was stinging, his mind was thinking of ways to leave John and bring Sam with him.

"Here, Dad…" Sam said as he place another set of bacon and eggs in front of him.

This time John didn't have anything to point out and ate without a problem.

Sam grabbed Dean by the arm –his good arm– and took him to their room. Gently, he took the knife out of Dean's body.

Then he proceeded to take Dean's shirt off, so that he could examine the wound.

In the meanwhile, Dean, who thought they were still in the kitchen, got back to reality when he felt the pain of the knife leaving his arm.

"Ow!" He hissed.

"Sorry." Sam apologized.

They were used to this. John would become violent, hit Dean, and then Sam would help him get better. This time it had been a lot worse.

"I need to patch you up, Dean." Sam told him as he reached for the first aid kit that the boys had hidden under Sam's bed.

He got out the necessary stuff to patch his brother and started cleaning the wound up so he could start doing so. He had done it before, but it had always been superficial cuts, it had never been something his profound.

Dean was hissing, though he tried not to. It's not that he didn't want Sam to think he couldn't handle it. No, that wasn't it… What he wanted was to be strong for Sam, so that Sam wouldn't be scared.

Sam gave his best, in the end he just reached for some cotton with alcohol and placed it above the now patched up wound. He wanted this to be good. He didn't want his brother to have that wound infected.

"It's done, Dean." Sam said emotionless. He wasn't exactly sure what he was feeling. He knew two of those feelings: _anger _and _sadness._ He didn't like to see his brother suffering so much. Especially when the reason was something as stupid as having ditched a plate. He knew that he was angry at his father, that he was sad that Dean was always suffering so much. But there was another feeling he didn't quite know what it was.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you everyone who keeps reviewing :3 i love you all so much! It means a lot to me that you are enjoying the story and that you keep telling me that! ^^**

**I was going to give them a normal morning, but then I came up with this... I'm sorry about what I came up with...**


	8. Good morning to you all

**A/N: Oh Look! Another chapter! ^^**

* * *

Chapter 8 – Good morning to you all

As they were walking, Sam kept looking at his brother with concern.

"Are you sure you're alright, Dean?"

Dean nodded.

"You don't look alright…" Sam muttered. After a few seconds, Sam decided that it would be best if he left Dean with someone.

He tried to spot Charlie, but he had no such luck. After a few seconds, Sam spotted three guys who looked decent enough.

Sam walked up to them, leaving his brother behind with a 'I'll be right back', and tried to catch their attention.

"Hello." Sam greeted. The guys casually looked at him briefly before going back to ignoring him. "I'm sorry… Can I ask you a favor?"

Sam really didn't trust his brother to be alone right now… He had done his best patching him up, but he wanted to have at least someone checking the wound out, so see if it wasn't going to infect.

One of the guys turned around and walked to Sam with a smirk.

"What do you want kid?"

Sam smiled. _Now that's what I call progress!_

"My brother…" Sam hesitated with his words. He didn't trust them enough to tell them much. "My brother isn't feeling very well…" He ended up saying, careful with his words. "Could you take him to the nurse's office? I would go with him but I need to go to my own school…" Sam explained quickly.

The guy, who was a lot shorter than most guys in high school pondered a bit.

"Is that your brother?" Gabriel asked, pointing to the figure standing behind Sam.

Sam nodded.

"Yeah, that's my brother." He confirmed.

Dean chose that moment to turn around, to see what was taking Sam so long.

"Oh! So your brother is 'Mr. Winchester'!" Gabriel said loudly, catching his brothers' attention.

"Can you take him with you or not?" Sam asked.

As Gabriel was about to answer, when Castiel approached Sam.

"What does your brother need?"

Sam smiled gratefully. _Now he might take him!_

"He isn't feeling very well, can you take him to the nurse's office, please?" He asked the new guy.

Castiel looked at Dean. He really didn't look all that well… He was pale, standing with a pained look on his face.

Cas pondered. He could take Dean and ask him if he was finally going to tell who had been following him, or he could leave the guy alone, for someone to take care of. He wanted to torture Dean himself, he wanted to be the one who was in Dean's head… And he wasn't well enough to be tortured, so he was nothing to Cas at the moment.

"I'll take him…" Castiel said. _This is my good deed for the week._

"Thank you!" Sam told him gratefully. He walked back to his brother. "Dean, come on… You need to go to the nurse's office. That guy will go with you…" Sam explained as he pointed to Castiel.

"I don't need to go to the nurse's office, Sammy! She will ask questions! You know dad would go nuts if someone found out!" Dean huffed.

"There's no way I'm letting you go to class like that, Dean! You NEED to go! Take a moment there, ask for some pain killer, I don't care, but you need to go there… You are NOT ok!" Sam was almost yelling. His brother was always stubborn, but he knew just how to make the stubbornness go away. He made his move. "Come on Dean… Please do it for me…"

Dean looked at his brother, only to find the ultimate puppy eyes.

He sighed in defeat.

"Fine… I'll go… But I don't need company… I know where it is. I can go there on my own." Dean argued.

"No way… You look like you're going to pass out… Please go with someone Dean… Or else I will be too concerned that you might be passed out in a hallway, all on your own…"

"Geez Sammy… You think too much!" He told his brother. "Fine… I'll go." He agreed. "But don't be worried, Sammy… You need to stay focused, I don't want to be the reason you can't get a good grade… You always get so depressed…"

Sam nodded.

"Of course Dean. I know you're not alone, so I won't be too worried." Sam told him with a smile as he started walking away.

"Sammy…" Dean called. Sam turned around. Dean hugged him close. "Thank you for caring so much."

Sam smiled.

"Of course Dean… Your my brother and I love you…" He told Dean as he hugged back. "But now you need to go… The guy who agreed to go with you is looking at us as if he's pissed… I bet we're taking too long…"

And so they walked their separate ways.

"Good morning, Cas." Dean greeted, as they started walking to the nurse's office.

Cas looked at Dean curiously.

"What happened to you?" He asked.

Dean frowned.

"What do you mean?" He asked nervously. Did Castiel know what happened? No… He couldn't… Could he?

"You look like a different person around your brother." Castiel stated. "Why's that?"

Dean looked Castiel in the eyes.

"I trust my brother. He's my family… I would die for the kid… So I act a bit protective around him… And it goes the other way around too… We are very protective of each other…"

Cas nodded.

"I don't understand why… Me and my brothers aren't exactly like that. Gabe is always pulling pranks. Balthazar just goes along with it… But I can see that you are very fond of your brother."

"Yeah… I guess you could say that." Dean shrugged.

Dean was the only real family Sam had ever had. And the same worked for Dean. The closest they got to a father was their 'uncle Bobby' but usually Dean would take that position and would take care of Sam.

"You were fine yesterday." Castiel stated. "Did you eat something bad?"

Dean nodded. He didn't want questions. It was bad enough that he had to go to the nurse office, he didn't need someone questioning him about how he got sick.

They were walking around the corner when someone bumped into Dean. The other person's shoulder hit Dean's right arm.

Suddenly, Dean was on the floor nursing his arm the best he could.

Cas noticed Dean falling, and thought that Dean had passed out. He was about to reach other for him when he noticed Dean nursing his upper right arm. He said nothing about that, but he was curious. Did the person hit Dean that hard? Or was Dean hiding something?

"Come on, Dean… We're almost there… Don't make me pick you up and drag you there!" Cas said defiantly.

Dean got up as quickly as he could, still nursing his arm the best he could, with all the people walking near him.

They were almost in the nurse's office when Crowley showed up.

"Good morning, Mr. Winchester!" He greeted. "You don't look so well today… Maybe I could get you to look worse."

Azazel and Alastair smirked, while Crowley got himself closer to Dean.

"What is wrong with your arm? Care to show?" Dean said nothing and tried to walk past them, but Crowley blocked his way. "Na-ah-ah! Where do you think you're going?"

Dean didn't answer. His arm felt like it was going to explode; all he wanted was something to relieve the pain… Anything, so he kept trying to walk.

"Did the cat eat your tongue? Answer when I speak, would you Mr. Winchester?!" Crowley yelled at Dean.

Castiel was watching what was happening. Dean hadn't said anything… Hell, he had just walked near Crowley and the guy was all over him. Now he was just trying to get out of trouble.

"Crowley… He doesn't want to show it… How about we go and find it ourselves?" Alastair asked.

Crowley smirked.

"That's what I was going to do…"

Castiel was going to stop Crowley, to help Dean… But he was curious… What was Dean hiding? So he just sat back and watched as Crowley's guys grabbed Dean by the arms and Crowley reached for Dean's neckline. He pulled it down on the side to see a fresh wound, one that looked pretty nasty, it was about two inches long and it had stitches.

Crowley smiled.

"Well… You lost a fight… I wonder what would happen if I were to touch it… accidentally of course…"

Castiel was astounded. Why did Dean have a nasty wound in his arm? And above that, why did it look so nasty? He decided it was enough. Dean was clearly in pain without Crowley putting his hand on the wound.

"Crowley…" Castiel called. Crowley turned around.

"Good Morning, Castiel… How are you today?"

Castiel dismissed the small talk.

"I'm good, but Mr. Winchester over there is not.. And I promised his brother I would take him to the nurse's office, so back off." It wasn't a question, and Crowley could feel it. Slowly, his hands left Dean and the boy was hugging his arm as close to himself as he could. He feared Crowley would try something, even with Cas there.

"Alright… We're going…" Crowley agreed.

Crowley motioned for Alastair and Azazel to follow him and so they left.

"Are you alright, Dean?" Castiel asked as he reached Dean.

Dean looked at him.

"You helped me…" He said dumbstruck.

Castiel looked at Dean confused.

"Of course… I promised your brother… I keep my promises."

Dean smiled warmly.

"Thanks Cas."

Dean was slowly starting to trust Castiel. The fact that he had defended Dean was a huge deal to Dean. No one had ever defended him, and then, Castiel – the King of the place – showed up and saved him.

They walked the rest of the way in a comfortable silence.

Once they reached the door of the nurse's office, Dean was stopped by a hand on his chest.

"Why do you have stitches on your arm, Dean?"

Dean faced the floor.

"I don't want to talk about it." Dean answered.

"They weren't there yesterday." Castiel noted.

Dean frowned, looking slightly up to Cas.

"What makes you say that?"

"Yesterday I touched you in the arm and nothing you didn't even looked a litle bit pained." Castiel explained.

"Oh… Sure…"

"Tell me Dean…" Cas asked.

"I fell and got a stick on my arm…" Dean lied.

"You're back at lying." Castiel noted. He was starting to see when Dean was lying and when Dean was speaking the truth.

"How can you possibly know that?" Dean asked him confused.

Castiel locked eyes with him.

"That's because three seconds ago you refused to think about it, and now you just spilled it out without me pressuring you that much."

_Shit… You could have played hard to get Dean!_

"Whatever you say Cas… Now, can I get some painkillers or what?"

Cas shook his head.

"You can go, when you tell me what happened."

Dean sighed. He wasn't even prepared to think about it. How could he tell what had happened?

"I can't tell you…" Dean said softly, his eyes meeting again with the floor.

"Who did this to you, Dean?"

Dean looked slightly taken aback by Castiel's question. But still refused to answer.

"I know it wasn't Crowley… I know your brother wasn't… So, who did it?"

"I told you… I fell…" Dean tried to convince not only Cas but also himself. It hurt too much to think that his own dad had done that to him.

"Alright Dean… You are about to pass out, I can see it in the way your almost falling to the ground, so I'm letting you go. But this talk isn't over… Nor is our last talk!" Cas said, finally taking his hand off of Dean's chest.

The moment Cas let go, was the moment Dean fell, unconscious, on the floor.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you all for the reviews, follows and favorites. Those are the things that make me want to write.**

**I started writting this chapter in my english class today -because my classes are just that boring- I hope you liked my effort in class! xD**


	9. It doesn't hurt so bad

Chapter 9 – It doesn't hurt so bad

His arm hurt. Dean was slowly drifting back to consciousness, his eyes starting to flutter open.

"Welcome back!" The nurse said. "Be careful, you don't want to get up too fast… You've been out for twenty minutes, so don't try to outdo yourself, sweetheart."

Dean tried to sit himself on the bed that was in the nurse's office - it was kinda like a hospital bed - he got half sitting, half lying down and looked around. He didn't remember walking inside the room ever. It was full of shelves that had medicine, other three hospital-like beds and one desk with a chair in front of it.

A shiver came creeping to Dean's body and he noticed he didn't have his shirt on.

The nurse walked up to him.

"Now, Dean… Are you feeling ok?"

Dean looked at the nurse, he had never talked to her before but she seemed nice. She had dark locks and was wearing a comforting smile. Dean glanced down to read her name tag; it read '_Nurse Pamela Barnes_'.

"I'm good, Miss Barnes." He answered.

She looked at him suspicious.

"Oh really?" He nodded. "Then why do you have a patched up wound on your arm?" Dean didn't answer. "Why did you pass out?"

Dean decided he needed to talk, she wouldn't stop asking questions, and he couldn't have her finding the truth.

"O fell on my way home and got a stick stuck in my arm."

Miss Barnes walked closer to him.

"Then why didn't you go to the hospital? This wound is pretty deep. The stitches aren't bad but it's clearly not done by a professional…" She pointed out.

"I asked my brother to do it. I don't trust hospitals." It wasn't exactly all true, but it also wasn't exactly a lie… He didn't ask Sam, but it had been Sam who patched him up… That counted as half true, right? And he didn't really trust hospitals; once John had beaten Dean on the face and broke his nose, Sam asked Dean to go to the hospital and once he got there they started asking questions… and he couldn't have that. Who knew what his father would do if he found out Dean had told everything? So he told them he couldn't tell them. They agreed not to pressure him, but all too soon they were asking again and again. Luckily for Dean he didn't have time to break. John walked in the hospital and demanded that Dean got out of that place; he dragged Dean out and made him swear he would never go to one again. So, he was speaking one and a half true…

"Alright." Miss Barnes sighed. "I'm glad you at least came here… This wound would have infected... I had to take the previous stitches off of you and then I had to disinfect it, and then patch you up again." He sent him a sad smile. "You can't do any physical activity with your arm for about a week, or the stitches will break… Here, I wrote a note to your PE teacher…"

She handed him the note and placed a soft hand in Dean's neck.

"You need to be more careful." Dean nodded, to make the nurse stop talking. So far he managed to keep her to asking further questions, but one never knew what would come next… "Oh, and Dean… I suggest you thank your friend very well." Once the nurse saw his look of confusion, she chuckled softly. "You were falling to the ground when you lost consciousness. He caught you before you hit the ground and carried you in his arms to the bed. Despite you being unconscious, you were moving your arm, and I couldn't give you any anesthesia, because I had no idea if you were allergic to it or not; anyway… he hold both of your arms so that I could treat you… Not many people are willing to do that, you know… Most run away the second they see the nasty cuts, because of the amount of blood that comes with a wound… If it weren't for him you would be much worse now…"

"I'll make sure to thank him…" Dean muttered.

"Also Dean… I must inform your father about this…" She explained to him. "But I can't find his cell-phone number in your process… Can you give it to me?"

Dean's eyes went wide. His father would be so pissed that he wasn't man enough to handle a knife on his arm without passing out… He didn't even let himself think of the possibilities of what John would do to him.

"I'm sorry… But my dad knows… He was the one who took the stick out of my arm…" Dean lied.

"But I still need to inform him, Dean… You were unconscious in school grounds…"

"Please… Don't…" Dean didn't know what else to say… He couldn't have her talking to his dad, and he had no idea how to make her stop. "He is a very busy man, but if you want you can talk to my…" Dean thought for a few seconds. "…godfather, I'll give you his number, he will tell my dad when we meet up tonight." Dean lied through all of his teeth.

Miss Barnes thought that speaking to Dean's godfather was better than speaking to no one at all, and so she agreed.

Dean gave her Bobby's number and she called him.

Bobby answered on the second ring.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mr. Singer, I wanted to talk to you about your godson, Dean." Bobby huffed in the other side of the line. "He passed out on school grounds and he has a very serious wound on his arm."

"Is he alright?" Bobby asked worried.

"Yes… I got his wound treated and patched up properly, but I needed you to inform the boy's father about the situation; he said that his father was working and that you would talk to him later… So I wanted you to speak about this Mr. Singer."

"Of course… I will have a word with John…" Bobby said angrily.

"Alright… I wanted to warn you about Dean's condition; he can't work hard with his right arm so please make sure he doesn't get his stitches to break." Miss Barnes informed Bobby.

"Yeah… I'll make that idjit rest, don't worry about that…"

"This was all I needed to inform you, thank you very much for you time, and I hope you have a good day, sir."

"Likewise."

Dean had put his shirt back on and was waiting for Miss Barnes to give him some painkillers.

As soon as she gave it to him he left the room.

* * *

Searching for Charlie was hard. Dean really wanted to talk to her. There were loads and loads of people in the hallway, but her head was an easy one to spot. Her hair came into view and he ran up to her.

"Hey Charlie!" He greeted.

Charlie turned around with a smile; which faded as soon as she saw how pale –despite being a bit better now– Dean was.

"Geez Dean… What happened to you?" She asked. Her eyes glanced around his body and she saw that he didn't look like he had been beaten up. "Did he do something to you again?"

Dean lowered his head.

Charlie needed no further proof. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close; Dean accepted the hug and pulled her as close to himself as he could.

"This can't go on Dean… One day he could kill you…" She whispered. And Dean knew that, but he didn't know how to make John stop.

"I will do something… I just don't know how or when…" Dean admitted. "I need to talk to you…"

Charlie smiled sadly.

"I'm here for you Dean." Dean started to pull a bit away from her. "If you need a plan I can help you with that…"

"No… That's not what I need to talk to you about." Dean told her, glancing at her eyes. Charlie looked curious. "There's this person…" Dean didn't want to tell her many details… not at least he understood what was going on. "…who used to bully me, but he helped me out today… I was about to pass out and he got me to the nurse's office. And he stood up to Crowley for me…"

Charlie smiled.

"You got yourself a friend…"

"I don't know… What if he wants to hurt me even more?" Dean asked fearful. "Maybe he just wants some information about me to use against me sometime soon…"

Dean was almost hyperventilating, the possibilities could destroy him and he was scared that might be the case…

"Dean." Charlie called, placing her hand in his shoulder. "Calm down… Maybe he just wants to be your friend…" She started drawing soothing circles with her hand in his shoulder, trying to calm him down. "And besides, if he took you to the nurse's office, then he might really want to help you out."

Dean nodded.

"He also helped Miss Barnes when I was unconscious. I kept moving my arm and she needed to stitch my arm; he held both my arms so that she could do it…"

Charlie looked at Dean and grinned.

"Wow, Dean! Looks like you found yourself a boyfriend!"

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! They help me so much! I had writen this chapter and was about to publish it, but then I saw one review that reminded me I needed to add something! Thank you for reminding me! ^^ Thank you for reading this chapter. I've got the plan for the next chapter, so I might publish it tomorrow... :D**


	10. He's after me

Chapter 10 – He's after me

"Come on, Bobby!" Dean grunted.

"I already said no, Dean!"

A week had passed since the knife incident.

"It's been a week! Miss Barnes said I could start physical activities when it had passed a week!" Dean wanted to help Bobby on the shop, but that was out of question for Bobby.

"And I told you no, Dean!" Bobby sighed and placed a hand on Dean's shoulder. "I know you don't have enough rest at home with John there… So please take a few more days before you make something you'll regret with your arm."

Dean frowned.

"That's not fair! I want to work here! Besides dad hasn't been too bad on me, he only makes me clean the house and fetch stuff for him; and I've got Sam who won't let me do half the things!" Dean whined. He was thankful of what his brother was doing, but he didn't want Sam to do the house chores when he needed to study. It angered him to think that it was all because of a stupid wound.

"Please Dean! Just take a few more days." Bobby asked. He was tired; Dean wanted to help, he had been trying to do so during the whole week, but Bobby wouldn't let him. He didn't want Dean to rip the stitches off.

The doorbell rang and Sam entered the shop panting.

"Hey Sammy." Dean greeted with a soft smile.

Sam bended forward and his hands fell to his knees. He had run to the shop so he was panting slightly.

"Dean… I need your help." Sam said as soon as he could.

Dean got closer to his brother.

"What's the matter, Sammy?" He asked worried.

"I- There's this guy…" Sam started explaining. "…that guy to whom I talked first the day you passed out…"

"You mean, Gabriel?" Dean asked, interrupting his brother, who nodded a bit annoyed by the interruption. "Sorry."

"Yeah, him. I don't know why, but he has been almost everywhere I go! I go somewhere and he is there…" Sam explained. "This is starting to creep me out. At first I thought that it was coincidence, but then I started noticing that he would look over at me and smile. I think he is after me, Dean..."

Dean didn't know what to think. Why would Gabriel suddenly be interested in Sam? They had only talked once and it hadn't been all that much! About three sentences each before Castiel interfered. So why would he do something like that?! It made no sense.

"Are you sure? It could really be a coincidence, Sammy." Dean said.

His brother snorted.

"You think I would come here and ask for your help if I wasn't sure, Dean?!"

Sam did have a point. Just like his brother, he didn't like to ask for help all that much. The only times he did ask for help was about school. When he didn't understand something he would ask Dean, aside from that it was a rare event for Sam to ask for help to anyone.

"Sorry… I just need to be sure Sam. I can't just go and talk to him if you're not sure."

"Fine. I see your point." Sam huffed.

A few moments later, with Sam and Dean discussing what could be done, the bell rang again.

This time, the person who entered wasn't running. In fact he was very much calm, his breathing normal and he had a grin in his face.

"Hey there." He said as he entered the shop.

Sam jumped closer to Dean. Dean turned to Gabriel.

"Hey. Can I help you with something?" He asked. He knew that he wasn't going to work, Bobby was in the same room as they were, but that didn't mean that Dean couldn't be the secretary.

"In fact I think you can…" Gabriel smirked as his eyes wandered around until they settled on Sam.

Without really thinking, Dean placed himself in front of Sam.

"With what, may I ask?" Dean asked, bothered by the fact that Sam had been right about Gabriel.

"I just need to ask you something." Gabriel said. Dean waited for him to continue. "Where's the bathroom?"

Dean's eyes grew wide in shock.

"Excuse me?" He asked.

"You know… The bathroom! I really need to go to one, you see, I didn't want to pee in the street, so when I saw this garage and decided to ask if I could use the bathroom." Gabriel's eyes continued fixed on Sam.

Dean was now standing completely in front of Sam making it impossible for Gabriel to look at him. His instincts were kicking it off and he just knew better than to trust Gabriel, so he was protecting Sam with his own body.

"Geez Dean-o." Gabriel said as he walked closer to them. "Just tell me, can I use the bathroom or not?"

"Yeah, sure. Come with me." He said as he grabbed Gabriel's arm and dragged him to the bathroom door. "We're here. You can go inside."

He was almost shoving the guy inside, he felt that Gabriel needed to go away, and the only way to do it was if he went to the bathroom.

"Thanks Dean-o!" Gabriel smiled, despite having been shoved to the inside of the bathroom. He started closing the door, but right before it was closed, he poked his head out of the bathroom. "What's your brother's name?"

Dean couldn't believe it. Why was Gabriel calling him 'Dean-o'? And why in hell did he want to know Sam's name?

"Why do you want to know?"

A smirk came into view in Gabriel's lips.

"He looks interesting. I would love to talk to him."

"Whatever you 'would love to' you can forget it. You're not going to do anything to my brother." He didn't know what had got through him. He had never spoke to anyone at school like this before. Usually he was too scared to act; but now Sam was involved and he simply wanted to protect his baby brother.

Gabriel frowned and Dean could see a bit of Cas in Gabriel.

_Come on Dean! This is important! You need to focus on Sammy!_

"I just wanted to talk to him… No need to get all angry like that, Dean-o!"

"And why do you keep calling me that? You never even talked to me before!"

"Because I like 'Dean-o' better than 'Dean'. So please let me carry on with calling you that." Gabriel rolled his eyes.

"Didn't you need to pee?" Dean asked not really in the mood to talk to Gabriel.

Gabriel closed the door. And Dean walked back to Sam.

"I don't get him…" Dean confessed. "He said he just wanted to talk to you because you 'seem interesting'."

Sam frowned.

"How did he come up with that?"

"I have no idea! But be careful Sammy. I don't trust him." Sam nodded, trusting his brother's better judgment.

"Bobby." Sam called out. Once they heard a gruff that showed that Bobby had heard him, he continued. "I'm going to the house for a bit, ok?"

Bobby's house was attached to the garage. He lived in the back and his garage was on the from yard.

"See you later, idjit." Bobby answered simply.

Sam walked away and the flush of the toilet was heard.

Soon, Gabriel was outside of the door, his eyes searching for Sam.

"You need anything else?" Dean asked.

After analyzing the garage and finding that Sam wasn't there, his eyes met Dean.

"Nope. I better get going." And so he started walking outside of the garage. Before stepping outside, he turned to Dean. "Tell your brother I said bye."

Dean was about to answer him when Gabriel walked away laughing.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys! They help me get into the mood to write - because tumblr distracts me a lot! - and if I get in the mood to write you will have more chapters soon! xD If you want something to happen, tell me and I'll see what I can do about it!**


	11. Torture

Chapter 11 – Torture

The questions were still in his head. One day after Gabriel had come to the garage, and Dean was still thinking about it. The questions were so many; he didn't know where he could start digging to find out the answers.

_What does he want? Why is he doing this? Will he stop? What is going to happen to Sammy? What can I do to make him stop?_

What Gabriel had said about just wanting to talk to Sam wasn't something that Dean believed in. He figured that it was just Gabriel finding excuses to do what he wanted. If Dean wasn't thinking so hard about it, he would have heard Charlie calling him –actually it was more like yelling for him- in the distance.

"Dean!"

But Dean was too deep in thought that he didn't listen. Charlie ran up to him and jumped on him, taking him to the floor with her.

"Ow!" Dean sat himself, and pulled Charlie to the side. "What was that for?"

Charlie looked at him in disbelief.

"Did you seriously not hear me yelling your name in the distance?!" She was pissed. Why was he taking it out on her? Why should he blame her if he could stay up when someone jumped on him?!

Dean seemed to realize how off he was and looked at her apologetically.

"I'm sorry."

Charlie smiled slightly.

"I know…" She started getting up and so did Dean. "Can I talk to you?"

Dean didn't have class until next period so he was fine with it.

"Good. Come with me!" Charlie grabbed Dean's hand and pulled him around the school until she found an empty classroom.

Dean sat himself on a chair and waited for Charlie to say what was on her mind.

"Dean… I need to tell you something…" She started a bit tense.

Dean eyed her suspiciously.

"Is everything ok?" Charlie was never one to be nervous, she would just chill around while drama happened, but she looked nervous, so it worried Dean.

"Yeah." Charlie tried to sound as usual!Charlie would, but it just wasn't going the way she wanted. After a few seconds of trying to be alright she shook her head. "No…"

Dean pulled his chair closer to Charlie's and placed a hand in her back.

"What's the matter?"

Charlie's face fell to Dean's shoulder and she hugged him. Dean hugged her back and started drawing soothing circles in her back. Charlie was like the sister he had never wanted, but as soon as he found her, he knew they would always be there for each other. He cared deeply about her and when something made her like this it made Dean angry. He wanted to understand what made her so fragile, almost like glass… And he was too afraid that she would break if he stopped holding her. So he kept her as close to himself as he could.

Charlie was crying softly in his arms, and it took her a few seconds to calm herself down enough to reply to Dean.

"I- We-" She was trying to make sense but she didn't know where to start. She sounded hurt and lost, and Dean hated hearing her voice break like this. "Anna… S-She cheated on me."

Anna was Charlie's girlfriend for the past three months. They met online and started dating when they realized they went to the same school. They seemed like the happiest couple Dean had ever seen, so it bothered him to hear that Anna had cheated.

"What?" He asked in disbelief. "She cheated?!"

Charlie nodded and buried her face in the crook of Dean's neck. Dean felt the tears in his neck and he wanted nothing more than to calm her down.

"It's ok, Charlie… You're going to be ok…" He told her once he realized he couldn't ask her much more without her breaking into a deep crying mess all over again.

Charlie raised her head slightly and searched for Dean's eyes.

"You know who she cheated on me with?" Charlie asked. She felt the need to tell him. She needed to tell someone, but it hurt too much… She knew better than to let it all inside of her; it would consume her if she didn't let the pain out.

Dean was afraid of knowing. He didn't really want to know because it would make him be very mad at whoever it was. But he knew that Charlie needed to talk about it.

"Who was it?" He asked.

Charlie grabbed Dean's arm, seeking for the strength she had lost.

"She was giving a blowjob to _Castiel_." And with that, another cry came out of her.

Dean didn't know what to think. _Why? Why would she do something like this? _He was lost. As much as he wanted to blame Anna, he also blamed Castiel. It was known all over school that Anna and Charlie were an item. Everyone knew it because who in their right minds wouldn't know of the only lesbian couple in their High School… So _Why_ did he do it? Was it to affect Charlie? Still trying to figure that out, he realized that it takes _two_ to cheat on someone. And it wasn't a kiss, something Anna could say it was because Cas had kissed her… She was giving him a blowjob. That was a bit more difficult to explain… A sudden rage came to Dean and he wanted to make some justice. But he kept feeling Charlie shacking.

"She was wrong to do it, Charlie. But you need to be strong." He told her, making her sit in his lap. It was easier to hold her like this. Whenever Sam was crying, Dean would put in his lap and rock him to sooth him, so it was instinctive to do it with Charlie too. "You're going to be ok… You can't let them win."

Charlie fisted Dean's shirt. It was good to know that someone still cared about her. Despite all that pain, she still felt loved.

"Thank you Dean." She said as she tried to pull herself together.

Dean raised an eyebrow.

"For what?"

"For being my best friend…" She told him, still not letting go of his shirt. "For being always there for me whenever I need you… You're more like a brother than a friend to me, you know?"

Dean smiled.

"Hey… Don't you dare think for even a second, that I don't feel the same way." He felt Charlie smiling against his neck. "And I'm always going to be here for you… Like you have always been for me! No matter what happens… I'll be here. Always." He tried to sound as reassuring as possible.

Charlie let go of Dean's shirt and her hands flew around his waist. She placed her chin in Dean's neck.

"I know…"

They stayed embracing each other for a few seconds, before Charlie raised her head.

"Why were you so lost in thought earlier?" Being with Dean made her almost forget the pain, it made her think about the way Dean didn't hear her calling his name. "Did something happen?"

Dean, who had started to relax, suddenly stiffed. His mind was now heading back to the topic.

"Yeah…" He started. "Something happened yesterday."

Charlie waited for him to explain.

"Basically, Sam is being stalked by Gabriel Novak. The guy came to Bobby's garage and he kept staring at Sam. I talked to him and he told me that he just wanted to talk to Sammy. And when Gabriel left –Sam went to the house- he asked me to say goodbye to Sammy." Dean stopped himself for a moment. Now that he had told her the problem, she would start telling all the possible scenarios she could think of. "I don't know what to make out of it…" He confessed.

"You know what?" She asked, making Dean look at her. "I think that what he said isn't the truth. Sam is a really interesting guy, true, but that wouldn't make someone like Gabriel go after him… I think that this is part of something bigger…"

Dean knew that trusting Charlie was the best thing to do. She was a genius after all. She could have skipped a year, but she insisted that being with her friends was better than graduating earlier, so she stayed in the same grade.

"Part of something bigger…" Dean thought out loud. "Something like what?"

Charlie gulped.

"Something to mess you up? Messing with Sam would mess you up… Messing with me… Same thing… This is probably a plan that intends to hurt us both, to get to _you,_ Dean." She told him.

It made sense. _But who_? And then it hit him… The only person that could possibly be behind this was _Castiel._

"I think that Cas is behind this…" Dean confessed.

Charlie shivered when Dean told the name. They had momentarily forgotten about the whole deal with Anna, but the name 'Cas' brought it all back.

"Sorry, Charlie… I didn't mean to…" He started apologizing.

"I know…" She cut him off. "It would come up sooner or later." A few seconds later she realized why Dean had said his name. "What makes you think it was him?"

Dean started explaining how he and Cas were friends, or so he thought they were, and how he always said he liked to torture people psychologically.

"It fits… He is making us feel bad mentally… He isn't beating us up, but it's almost the same thing…" Charlie agreed. "I can't believe I called him your boyfriend."

Disgust was the best word to explain Charlie's voice. She was disgusted by Castiel, the person who ruined her life.

"I couldn't believe it either, but now we just need to understand one thing… Why us?"

* * *

**A/N: So... How do you like this chapter?**


	12. Who did it?

Chapter 12 – Who did it?

"Go away!"

"No… I want to talk to you."

"And I said, GO. AWAY!"

Things weren't going well for Sam. He still had Gabriel following him, and he was pissed. Not only because of the part where Gabriel was following him, but now he was also approaching him.

"Please!" He said as he tried to get Sam to look at him. "Just hear me out, kid!"

Sam stopped. He had been trying to run away from him, but it just wasn't working as well as he hoped it would go. He turned around and looked at Gabriel, waiting for him to continue.

"Thank you!" Gabriel said with a grin. "You probably know my name by now. I bet your brother has told you by now! Still, I feel like I need to tell you myself." He got himself closer to Sam and held out his hand for Sam to hold. "My name is Gabriel Novak, but you can call me Gabe. It's nice to meet you."

Reluctantly, Sam took his hand and shook it.

"I'm Sam." Sam didn't exactly want to tell him his name, but it was only fair… Gabriel had introduced himself to him. "I'm just not sure if I feel the same about meeting you."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. Their hands let go of each other and Gabriel started looking for something in his pocket.

Sam looked at him curiously.

"What are you trying to find in there?" He asked out of curiosity.

Gabriel smiled.

"Just the best thing in the WHOLE WORLD!" He yelled at Sam, his face all lit up.

Sam rolled his eyes.

"Which is…"

"CANDY!" His hand got back from his pocket and Gabriel started unwrapping a lollipop. He looked at Sam. "Do you want one? I think I have some more in my pocket."

Sam's eyes went wide.

"No! Thanks, but no!"

Gabriel seemed amused by his reaction.

"Oh really?" He asked as he placed the lollipop in his mouth for the first time. "Because these are JUST the best! You have absolutely no idea what you're missing out by not having one!"

"I don't want one!" Sam shook his head. "What do you want from me, anyway?"

Gabriel place one arm behind Sam's back, to get himself closer to the younger boy.

"You know kid, I like you. It took me almost two weeks to make you stop and listen."

"How about you go straight to the point?" Sam pouted interrupting Gabriel's rambling.

"Alright! You're spoiling my speech but alright! I want to know one thing." Gabriel stopped and faced Sam. Gabriel was only an inch taller than Sam, and he planned on using it in his favor, he stood as straight as he could to make himself taller. "Why does your brother have a wound like that in his arm?"

All of his being stopped – his breathing, his mouth fell open, his arms couldn't move, he was stuck in that question. Why did he ask that? As soon as he managed to regain the power to speak he did it.

"Excuse me?" For sure, Gabriel hadn't asked that… Did he? He must have heard it wrong!

"Why. Did. Your. Brother. Have. A. Wound. Like. That. In. His. Arm?" He asked pausing between each word to make sure Sam would understand clearly what he wanted to know.

Sam's breathing started increasing quickly. He wasn't sure what to say. Dean had told him he told the nurse he had fallen and got a stick stuck on his arm… Maybe he could say the same thing. He gulped and faced the floor.

"Hmm… Dean, hmm, he… He fell on the floor, we were racing home, and I guess he tripped… And he got a-a stick stuck in his arm."

Gabriel looked curiously at Sam as he took the lollipop out of his mouth.

"I don't believe you."

Sam's eyes shot up to meet Gabriel's.

"I think you're telling me the same thing Dean-o told Cassie… And I don't believe that story." Gabriel got himself between Sam and the path he wanted to take. His face looked serious, his eyes were fixed on Sam's; the lollipop was now hanging on his hand instead of being in his mouth. As his face got closer to Sam's, to make himself more intimidating, he spoke again. "So you better start talking."

Sam was afraid of what was going to happen. He couldn't tell him what John had done, but he was also afraid that Gabriel would hurt him if he didn't say anything.

"I can't tell you." He said simply. He couldn't really; he was terrified of what would happen if he told him.

"Let's try this one more time." Gabriel growled, trying to get Sam to break and start spilling the truth. "What happened to his arm?"

"I told you, I can't tell you." Sam shivered and he felt tears starting to gather in his eyes. Why was this happening to him? He didn't know.

Gabriel noticed Sam was on the verge of crying, so he took a different approach.

"Why are you about to cry?" He asked. "Did I make this to you? Are you just this weak, and can't handle a bit of pressure?"

"I-I…" Sam tried to speak, but he couldn't. He felt like he wasn't in control of his own body. He was being faced about the fact that his father wasn't a good one, and he couldn't say anything out of fear; Gabriel just wanted to know, and Sam wanted to tell him, he wanted the world to know, because maybe then they could just ran away from John, but he was too afraid to try it.

"I see… You're weak. You're a coward!" Gabriel smirked.

"I can tell you this." _Man up, Sam! You're a Winchester after all!_ "I'm too afraid of the consequences to tell you what happened to Dean." _It wasn't that bad… See… You did it! You admitted something, which is far more than saying absolutely nothing at all._

Gabriel furrowed his brows.

"What do you mean you're 'too afraid of the consequences'? Did someone do that to your brother?"

Gabriel didn't know exactly how bad it was exactly. He only knew what Castiel had told him, and it was only enough to get more information from Dean's little brother.

After telling just a bit to Gabriel, it was a bit easier to talk about it. Just to say little details, like admitting it had been someone, but he still couldn't say the whole thing.

"Yeah. That's exactly what I mean. I can't talk because _someone_ will make it not worth it." Sam took a deep breath. "Now if you excuse me, I need to go to the library."

Sam shoved Gabriel from the way and started walking away.

Gabriel didn't know what to think. Someone was making both boys be afraid of what would happen if they told anyone what had happened. His brother wasn't going to be pleased.

* * *

"You're Charlie, right?"

Charlie glanced to her side and saw Balthazar standing there.

"What do you want?" She wasn't ready to talk to him. She wasn't ready to speak to anyone apart from Dean. But she couldn't exactly ignore Balthazar Novak.

"Hello Charlie! I just want to talk to you… I want to ask you something…" He spoke with a smile.

Charlie felt disgust. Was that the same thing Castiel had told Anna? Did he just_ wanted to talk _ too?

"I'm listening, but that doesn't mean I will answer." She couldn't deal with anyone. So hearing the person out was the best way to do it. If he said anything about Anna, then he would regret it; if he didn't, maybe she would answer.

"I like you Charlie…" Balthazar admitted with a smile. "And I want to help you… By helping your friend… So tell me… What happened to Dean's arm?"

She wasn't expecting this. With everything he could possibly want, why did he have to ask that?

"He got a stick in there I believe." She replied. Charlie was a great liar. She could trick almost anyone into believing she was speaking the truth… She just hoped she could fool him too.

"I don't believe you."

_So much for lying._

"I don't know… He didn't tell me anything." _Playing the victim always helps… Dean didn't exactly tell me, I guessed who did it and he complimented with how John did it…_

"And why don't I believe that?" Balthazar's smile was starting to disappear. "You are his best friend! Of course he told you how he got it!"

"If you know that, then you probably know that best friends don't spill out everything they know about the other! We promise not to tell anyone!"

Balthazar was starting to get tired of this.

"Why can't you answer a simple question? I just want to know how did he get his arm like that! So _please_ tell me!"

"No!"

Charlie wasn't going to tell. John had never threatened her before, but there was always a first time for everything, and if she was going to tell the truth, he kinda scared her. She admired Dean for living with him, and getting through all that just to spare Sam. She was proud of Dean's strength, and she was also sad that he had to live like that. So she tried to make him happy whenever they were together, because she knew that was one of the only moments that he would actually smile and be happy.

"Why?" Since he couldn't get what he wanted, he tried to get another answer, one that maybe would help.

"Because that will make it worse!" She spoke without really thinking. "And I can't make it worse!"

Balthazar eyed her carefully. He knew when it was enough. He knew that she was already broken; he made sure she would see when Castiel and Anna were going at it, so she was easy to break a bit more, only this time, he needed her to talk.

"If you tell me, why will that make it worse?"

Charlie realized what she had said a few seconds after saying it. She was in shock with herself, how could she do it? How could she tell a _Novak_ that?!

"Forget it." She said.

"No." Balthazar insisted.

"I SAID FORGET IT!" She yelled at him in frustration as she started running away from him.

"Now that was interesting!" Balthazar said to himself with a smile.

* * *

"Cassie! I have some news!" Balthazar said as he approached his brother.

Just behind him, Gabriel was walking to them with a grin.

"Hey, bros! I have some interesting stuff to tell you."

They walked to an empty classroom, it was easy to find one, because the school day had just ended.

"Who's going first?" Castiel asked as he sat himself on the closer desk.

Balthazar and Gabriel exchanged some glances, and Balthazarsat himself next to Castiel.

"Charlie said something… She said that if she told me 'it would make it worse'… I don't know what to make of it… But it can't be good." Balthazar informed.

"Let's see if Gabe found anything that we can use to understand." Castiel said.

Gabriel got himself a candy from his pocket and sat on an empty chair, putting it in front of the table where his brothers were sitting.

"Well… Little Sammy Winchester, gave me something juicy." He said with a smirked as he chewed on the candy.

"Go on…" Castiel scuffed.

"He said that he was too scared to talk. He was scared of the consequences… And you know what _anyone_ would make out of that? Someone is bullying them really bad. He wouldn't say who did it, but he agreed that there was someone."

All three of them thought for a while. Gathering the new information hadn't ben easy. They had to make them weak before going after them. And even with that they weren't that easy to break at all.

"I guess this means," Balthazar started. "that if they won't talk, we need to find out for ourselves."

Castiel rolled his eyes.

"Assbutts! I told you it had been someone already. You should have tried to find out _who_!" he scolded them.

"Yeah… We know. But you also said you weren't sure, right? So know we have this piece of information _for sure!_" Gabriel said with a grin.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you for reading so far! Please let me know what you thought of this chapter!**

**Someone asked me to write longer chapters, and this is the longest of them all. I will try to make them all bigger than before, but I don't know if I can get them as fast if they're longer.**

**You're reviews are what makes me NOT get distracted by TUMBLR so please make me write! To the huge number of followers thank you so much for following this story! And the same goes for the number of favorites this story has! Thank you all! ^^**


	13. Big Talks

**A/N: I was going to write this chapter sooner but I'm sick, and I couldn't write anything. So sorry if you were waiting for this chapter to be published. I wanted to tell you something, because I'm not sure you understand why Cas wants to know what happened to Dean, so here it goes: Cas is intrigued by Dean, he doesn't get why he's always so afraid and all that; Dean refused to tell him the truth; Cas doesn't like to be refused something. If Dean doesn't tell him, he finds out on his own; Cas wants to be the one who makes Dean be afraid, the one who hurts Dean, so he wants to know the 'competition'. And that's why he want to know who did it. If you didn't understand it very well I hope you can understand it now! ^-^**

* * *

Chapter 13 – Big Talks

"Where is it?"

Dean looked confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you try to fool me, Dean Winchester!" Charlie said as she hit him in the arm.

"Aw!" He hissed. "There's no need to do that! I don't know what you're talking about!"

Charlie tried to calm herself down.

"Your cellphone. Where is it?" She asked.

Dean fished his phone from his pocket.

"Here." He said confused.

She rolled her eyes.

"Then why didn't you answer it, you moron?"

Dean unlocked his phone and saw that there were five missed calls from Charlie, and six texts also from her.

"I'm sorry, Charlie… I didn't notice."

"Yeah sure… Whatever you say. Now… Are we going to class?" She asked. Dean looked at her confused. _Didn't she want to talk to me? And now she's asking that we go to class?_

"Sure…"

They walked together since they were having the same class, in a peaceful silence, which was something pretty rare for them. As they reached the classroom, Charlie sat herself beside Dean.

"Did you want to talk to me?" He asked slowly, not sure what Charlie had wanted from him. He decided to check what her messages said.

'_Balthazar started talking to me. Call me.'_

_'He wanted to know what happened to your arm. Call me!'_

_'Are you there, dumbass? He just wouldn't give up! Call me!'_

_'CAALL MEEEEE!'_

_'If you won't call me, and won't answer your phone… You must hate me…'_

_'What?! That didn't work!? What's wrong with you Dean?! CALL ME!'_

Dean could see the desperation that Charlie had just by reading her texts, he should have picked up the phone. She even used the 'you must hate me' card! As he blamed himself for not picking up the phone, he started apologizing.

"Sorry, Charlie… I didn't remember that it was in silent mode. It doesn't ring nor does it shake… I didn't know you were trying to talk to me! Please don't stay mad at me!" He begged her, his hands on her shoulders, pulling her into a hug.

Charlie smiled. She wanted him to understand why she needed to talk to him, since she got the status of a honorary Winchester, it was easy to understand that she was just as stubborn as any other Winchester himself. She would never tell something, she just waited for him to understand what was wrong, unless she really, really needed help.

"It's alright… I know you didn't do it on purpose." Charlie muttered against his skin, embracing him too.

"So, he wanted you to them him what happened to my arm… Could you figure out why?" Dean was unsure. Charlie probably figured it out and he was scared of why he wanted to know, but he felt like he needed to ask it.

Dean let go of Charlie and looked her in the eyes, trying to understand what he could do to make her feel better about the situation, and also trying to understand what happened exactly.

"No… He wouldn't let me ask anything. The only thing I could do was answer him." Dean saw Charlie's cheeks gain a bit of color as she talked. She looked nervous, and one thing that Charlie Bradbury never is, is nervous.

"What did you say to him?" He might not be Sherlock Holmes, but he could figure that she looked guilty, right after she said 'The only thing I could do was answer him', that always meant something.

Her eyes were fixed on the floor between their bodies. She stayed still for a few seconds before she sighed and looked into Dean's impossibly green eyes.

"I said that I wouldn't make it worse." She muttered lightly. She was ashamed of what she said. She never wanted to betray Dean, but it kinda got impossible for her to control her tongue. "I'm sorry Dean. I didn't mean to say it!" As the words came out of her mouth, Dean saw that Charlie was about to cry. She was still very sensitive and the whole situation with the Novaks only made it worse. She didn't need Dean to make her feel even worse.

"I know." He said as he pulled her close again. Charlie buried her face in his neck and calmed herself down. "I know that you only wanted to protect me. It's okay, Charlie…"

As she tried to snuggle closer, she replied a very low, "Thanks Dean."

The teacher walked in and they got themselves apart from each other and waited for the lesson to get started.

* * *

It was late at night. Dean was sitting in his bed and he could see that Sam was already sound asleep. And he let his mind wander.

His first thoughts went to Charlie, he was sad that she wasn't her usual self and that she would have a break down whenever she remembered the Novaks. He didn't like to see her hurting like that, and he promised himself to do _everything_ he could to make her smile more often.

Dean glanced again at Sam and his mind focused on him. He had no idea if Sam still had Gabriel in his tail. Sam only said that he asked Gabriel to leave him alone, his actual words were 'yelled' but that was just a detail, and walked away from him. He was concerned that Sam hadn't told him everything; he didn't look at Dean's eyes when they talked, and he usually did that whenever he wasn't comfortable with something. Dean couldn't help but get worried over it. Sam never hid things from him. They had a very firm relationship; they never had secrets to each other because they depended on the other and any secret could damage the entire thing.

As he thought of damage, he found himself thinking about how Crowley and the gang hadn't been too bad for him lately. They were almost never after him anymore, and only when they saw him in the hallway they smirked and walked to him. They wouldn't be as cruel as before, but were still quite mean to him.

He started remembering the day when Castiel defended him from them, and couldn't stop the red that spread in his cheeks. He felt like a girl, but he couldn't help it. Sam turned around in his bed and Dean jumped slightly in fear of being caught day dreaming about his crush. Even after all the things Castiel had done since their first talk, Dean still had a crush on him. He grabbed his pillow and buried his face in it, in case Sam woke up and saw Dean blushing.

Dean peeked slightly and saw Sam still sleeping peacefully. A smile glanced in his face as he glanced to the clock and saw that it was almost 11:30pm. He decided to lie down and wait for sleep to come. Still hugging his pillow and thinking of Cas, he drifted to sleep.

* * *

It was Wednesday morning, and Castiel was tired of waiting. He started walking and saw Dean pulling stuff from his locker. He marched towards him and closed the locker door for him.

"Hey!" Dean said a bit in shock by a closing door. It could have closed with his hand still inside!

Castiel rolled his eyes.

"Spare me, Dean. I need to talk to you." He started walking away, not glancing towards Dean because he knew the other would follow.

A bit confused to what Castiel could want now and what he would do, Dean followed him.

As they entered an empty room, Cas stopped and stared right into Dean's eyes. Dean stopped walking almost at the same moment Castiel did. The intensity in his blue eyes made Dean shiver.

"Who did that to your arm?" Castiel spared all greetings. He just went directly to the question that had been bothering him.

"Hello to you too Cas." Dean said not pleased with Castiel's question.

Castiel looked at him and huffed.

"I said: Who did that to your arm?" He asked again, this time a bit more impatient.

Dean didn't know what to do. He felt like running away. He wasn't the awkward school girl who couldn't talk to her crush. No, Dean was more like fearing his crush would find out he had a crush on him and make his life a living hell, and there was always the fact that he wanted to know everything that Dean couldn't tell him.

"I told you before. I can't tell you." He faced the floor because it was easier to talk to; the floor wouldn't look pissed at Dean for not telling him.

Castiel walked towards Dean and smacked him in his left arm.

"Alright. I figured you wouldn't say it. But you admitted to have that wound because someone did something to you." Castiel's gaze was murderous. Dean gulped loudly in fear of what would happen when he refused to tell Cas again.

"I really can't tell you." Dean said closing his eyes waiting for the pain.

"You know what? Screw you! If you won't tell me I will make sure to find out on my own!"

Dean opened his eyes wide, his mouth falling open to Castiel's words.

"You can't." Dean told him.

Castiel barked out a laugh.

"Just watch me!" He said as he started walking away from Dean.

Dean was in shock, but there was not shock that would make him so stiff that he wouldn't defend himself. He grabbed Cas's arm and pulled him away from the door.

Very shocked with Dean, Castiel looked back and saw the scared, but determined look in Dean's face.

"Why can't I find out?" He asked Dean, not moving from where he had been sent.

_Why did I do that? Did I really pulled him?! Oh God! I'm so stupid! He's going to kill me now!_

Despite his internal monologue, Dean still heard Castiel talking to him. For a few seconds he remained quiet, searching for the best way to put it. He really couldn't have Castiel finding out it had been his dad. Not because it was Cas, but because John would kill anyone that knew about it. If Castiel knew he would probably confront him, and that would be his biggest mistake. He would never walk alive after confronting John Winchester. His arm was still holding Castiel's and he didn't plan on letting go of it just yet.

"Because I can't have anyone finding this out Cas." He faced the floor as he searched for more words. "Please… Please don't try to find out. It will hurt me, it will hurt Sammy and it will hurt you. So please let it be and don't find out."

Castiel was a confused. Why was Dean making such a big deal out of it? And why was he saying it would hurt him?! He tilted his head slightly as he thought and he glanced at his arm. It was unexpected that Dean was touching him. He had never done that on his own. The only time they had touched each other was because Castiel had started it or because Dean was about to fall to the floor. But this time… This time Dean was taking control. He was the one ruling the situation, and because it was unexpected, Castiel let him. He wanted to see what Dean would do next.

"Why would I be hurt?" He asked.

"Because that what happens when someone finds out." Dean said, looking guilty. The only person besides Charlie who had found out was Ruby, a girl from Sam's class. One day she decided to confront him and John hit her. As soon as Dean could he jumped in to make John stop hit her, hitting him instead. John didn't believe any of them hadn't told her so he punished Dean for being such a spoiled brat telling everyone what he did when his boys didn't 'behave'. Dean still felt responsible for what John had done to Ruby, the girl was only trying to help, but now Dean knew that he couldn't let _anyone,_ no matter who, find out. "And I can't have anyone being hurt because of it again. So please, Cas… I beg you. Don't go and try to find out… Please."

Without knowing why, Castiel found himself agreeing on not trying to find out.

"I promise I won't Dean." He said as he freed himself from Dean's grip. "For now…"

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! I wanted to thank every single one of you who reviewd the last chapter! Being sick and trying to write is hard, so thanks for the motivation! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I will try to update the next one soon! Possibly tomorrow if you're lucky!**


	14. I like candy

Chapter 14 – I like candy

As he walked out of the room, Castiel was debating with himself.

_Why did I agree with him? Why did I promise I wouldn't try to find out! I really want to know, so why… I never give up on what I want! Was it because he went all determined? Was it because I believed in him, that I would get hurt? I can't try to find out now! I can be mean, but I never break my promises! I just wanted to understand why I promised him that! But… Why promise not to find out?!_

He was mad at himself. He wanted to find out, now more than ever, who hurt Dean, but he had been stupid enough to promise not doing anything. It was not just because he wanted to know, it bothered him _not _to know.

The hallways were deserted so he could walk to everywhere, anywhere, and no one would bother him to show just how evil they can be. He walked without a destiny in his mind, just thinking about the whole situation.

As he reached the bathroom door he walked inside. The water started coming from the tap, his hands cupped and he splashed water all over his face. When he wasn't sure what to think, the soothing feeling of water always seemed to help him think and calm down. He repeated the motion a few more times until he felt like himself again.

He buried every doubt he had and faced the mirror. The person in the mirror had water all over his face, looked tired and didn't look like him at all. His blue eyes were brighter than usual because of his blue shirt, and he used them to stare at himself. His hair was kind of combed so he took the chance to make it more like himself; he cupped his hands again and placed some water in his hair, then he proceeded to shake his head, making his hair go every way ending up even more messy than before. With one more look to the mirror, that was now full of droplets of water, he smiled and walked away from the bathroom, his face and hair with droplets falling down.

A few people passed by him with smiled directed at him but he chose to ignore them all. He didn't feel like pretending to sound impressed or amused by whatever they had to say to him. Why couldn't they understand that he simply _didn't care_, everything was too boring and he hated when things were that were expected actually happened. He liked to be free and do whatever he pleased, that was why he liked to rule the school, everything that happened, happened because of him, and they were always different so he was never bored by it, and now that he had found himself someone who was so different of all of them, he couldn't find out why he was that way.

He had classes to attend and he planned on going. He liked classes; he just didn't like his classmates, so he made their life as bad as he could, all with a smile in his face.

He was about to enter his classroom, that was half filled with people when his brother walked towards him, grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the doorway.

"Cassie!" Gabriel said excitedly as he pulled him. "How are you, little bro?"

Castiel shoved Gabriel's hand away and looked at him slightly annoyed.

"I'm fine, Gabe. What do you want?"

Gabriel was shorter than his brothers, but he was the most energetic of them all. Probably because of all the candy he ate, but no one questioned it... Ever.

"Can't I just come by and say 'Hi' to my baby brother?" Gabriel did his best to sound hurt.

"You can, Gabe… But you never do that… So what do you want?"

He understood that something was up with Castiel. He was pissed at something, and Gabriel could feel it.

"What can I do now to find the truth?" He asked trying to calm his brother down. It was bad when he got angry, he became too unpredictable, even to his own brothers who knew him better than anyone else.

Castiel thought about Gabriel's question for a few seconds. As soon as he got the idea, a smirk came gracing his features.

"Well… I promised I wouldn't find the truth… But you didn't." As he saw the confused look in Gabriel's face he started explaining. "I promised Dean I wouldn't try to figure who did it… But that doesn't mean that I can't ask _you _to find it out for me."

"Alright! I can find out!" Gabriel said excitedly as he prepared himself to leave.

Castiel grabbed Gabriel's shirt and hold him.

"You need to be careful. He can't find out that you're trying to find out the truth. You need to find a way to understand it without him knowing what you're doing." Castiel warned.

Gabriel nodded.

"No problem. I know just what I need to do." Castiel let go of his brother. "I'll see you later, bro."

* * *

Gabriel was waiting for the right moment. He didn't want to go in too soon, but he knew that he had to do it sometime. It was early in the morning and he was waiting for Sam Winchester to show up at the path between high school and middle school. He couldn't just jump on the guy when his brother was around. He needed to wait for Dean to leave to actually go talk to Sam.

He saw Sam waving at his brother as they reached the point where they go their separate ways. As soon as Dean was off, Gabriel walked towards Sam.

"Hey, Sam!" He greeted once the other boy was close enough to him.

Sam's neck gave a slight turn to make sure of who had spoken and continued walking.

"What do you want, Gabriel?" Sam asked annoyed to have Gabriel following him. _It's too soon to deal with this crap._

Gabriel smiled and placed his arm in Sam's shoulders.

"I just want to talk to you." He answered.

Sam stopped walking to look at him carefully.

"That's unfortunate. You see… I don't want to talk to you."

"I know…" Gabriel told him, his head falling a bit to the front. "But I really, really, really, reaaaally need to ask you something." As Sam looked at him expectantly and gave him a slight nod as if telling him to continue talking, Gabriel looked at Sam with a bothered look. "How the hell don't you like candy?!"

As soon as he spoke, Sam threw his head down and his laughter echoed in the street.

Confused by Sam's reaction, Gabriel looked at him his face full of questioning marks.

"What's so funny?"

Sam laughed for a few more seconds, before trying to calm himself down. As soon as he thought he was done laughing, another guffaw was heard, each of them stronger than the last. It took him a minute to actually stop laughing. Gabriel was still trying to understand what was so funny about the whole situation.

"Were you really that bothered because you thought I didn't like candy?" He asked, with a full smile plastered in his face.

"Well… You didn't take the candy I offered and I've never met someone who refuses FREE candy!"

"Just because I refused it doesn't mean I don't like candy!" Sam explained with a laugh.

Gabriel blushed slightly. This hadn't been the best plan he had come up with, but it was the easiest one to follow through. He was a bit embarrassed by Sam's reaction.

"Then why didn't you take the candy I offered?!" He asked defending his idea.

Sam shook his head slightly, his shoulders trembling with the short takes of laughter that were still coming to him.

"I just didn't want to eat your candy!" As his words, Gabriel looked hurt.

"Did you think I poisoned them? Do you really think so low of me?" He asked, as his body began to shrink in fear of the answer. He didn't like to be considered so lowly. He liked to be the one who was always happy, without a care in the world. But words like those hurt him.

"No." Sam answered honestly. "I just hate when people eat my candy… So I don't go to others requesting that they feed me candy."

As soon as his words were out, Gabriel gave a relieved breath, followed shortly by a smile.

"Yeah, well dumbass, if someone asks you if you want candy, it's because they're willing to share their candy with you!"

Sam blushed.

"I know… but when I offer my candy I don't always want people to accept them." He muttered in a low voice.

Gabriel looked at him, his smile growing.

"Let's try this again…" He offered his hand for Sam to take. "My name is Gabriel. You can call me Gabe if you want. Would you like some candy?"

After a few seconds of staring to Gabriel, Sam decided himself. A smile graced his features as he replied.

"Hey, Gabe. I'm Sam. I would really appreciate some candy." He took Gabriel's hand in his and shook it.

With his other hand, Gabriel fished two lollipops out of his trouser pocket and handed both to Sam.

"Which one do you want?" he asked him politely. _It's all about the attitude. If you act nice, then he will most likely befriend you!_

* * *

**A/N: Thanks a bunch for reading! I know this chapter is shorter but I really felt like it should stop here, otherwise I felt it would be too forced! I hope you enjoyed the chapter ^-^ There's one thing I forgot to tell yall last chapter, ****_sugarcoatedarchangel _****on tumblr drew some fanart for when Dean is day dreaming about Castiel late at night! So go check it out, it's under the tag #sofknowseverything ~which is my name in AO3 and in my fanfiction tumblr (the only thing in there is about my fanfictions, when I post them I tell you there), I also have a normal tumblr you can follow me if you want destielcas~ Thanks everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I appreciate your reviews so much! They make grin like an idiot and my family thinks I'm weird because everytime I check my email I make some weird sounds ~and it's all because of you~ I'll try my best to update the next chapter soon!**


	15. He's my new toy

**A/N: This chapter took me so much time to write! I had half of it written, but I couldn't find the right words to say what I wanted to. I hope you like it this way. If you don't I'm so sorry! But I really struggled with it. Thanks everyone for your great reviews and favorites and follows! You make my day brighter!**

* * *

Chapter 15 – He's my new toy

Balthazar and Castiel entered the school, talking to each other.

"So that's why Gabe stayed behind!" Balthazar said excitedly after hearing the new plan. "But why don't I get to be part of it?"

Castiel rolled his eyes. Why did he have to deal with people that just couldn't understand him? It should be clear to everyone why it needed to be Gabe befriending Sam…

_I'm surrounded by idiots._

"Because Gabe was already teamed up with Sam. We need continuity if we want to know anything at all… He needs to feel like he can trust us. And if I had sent you instead of Gabe, he would have thought it was suspicious…. It's better this way." He explained to Balthazar to make himself clear as to why it needed to be Gabriel. "And I also need you here with me."

Balthazar smiled brightly. He loved it when he had an important task, it usually meant that he could do whatever he wanted-he could fuck up everything to succeed in his task.

"What can I help with?"

Castiel was about to speak when he saw Dean walking in the end of the hallway. Something in him stopped and he forgot what he was about to say.

Near them, the sound of three guys talking made him look at them.

"Hey, Mr. Winchester is over there… Let's go say hello!" Azazel pointed out with a grin in his lips as he saw Dean.

"Yeah. Let's wish him a good morning." Alastair agreed, thinking about everything he could use near Dean to torture him.

Crowley grinned and clapped his hands together in amusement.

"Let's go boys! Mr. Winchester has other things to do with his day!"

They started walking towards him with Crowley leading the way.

Before he could refrain himself, an angry Castiel left a smirking Balthazar behind, and grabbed Crowley, yanking him against the wall.

Everything in the world lost his value to him. Nothing else mattered apart of what he was doing. Every sound, every image, anything at all besides Crowley was darkened to Castiel. He couldn't concentrate in anything else apart from Crowley.

"If you so much as think about touching Dean I'll end you." His voice was full of hatred as he pushed Crowley further into the wall. He meant every word he said; and everyone listening could hear him loud and clear.

"And why would you do such a thing?" Crowley asked a bit afraid of Castiel at the moment, but still dared to talk back to him. "Is he that precious to you?"

Cas's eyes were full of hatred as he looked to Crowley's. His grip tightened on Crowley's shoulder and arm, making the other boy look surprised and even flinch slightly.

"That's because he is mine." Castiel growled as he pushed Crowley even more against the wall; Making himself as clear as possible he added "He's my new toy." He said as he let go, with Crowley stumbling slightly, trying to get himself together again. He looked at his gang and motioned for them to walk with him away from there.

As they walked away, Castiel's anger started dissipating. He could hear what everyone in the hallway was saying and the sound that made him turn was the really loud laugh that came from Balthazar.

Cas looked to the sides before moving and shouted to everyone there.

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!" And so he started walking towards his brother.

Behind Balthazar he could see Dean watching him from afar. He looked shocked with what just happened. Soon he shook his head and started walking away with his head down.

Without thinking about it, Castiel followed Dean, keeping some distance between them.

As he walked, Dean kept bringing himself down.

_He doesn't care about you. No one does. Why would he anyway? Why would you even try to believe that anyone would care about you? You're nothing. You're worthless. Anyone is better than you. If they wanted they could find just point at a random person and that person would still be better than you._

While saying those things to himself, Dean stopped walking only to start running. He ran with only a place in his mind. He felt sick. So he ran to the bathroom.

Castiel followed suit but he didn't want Dean to know he was after him, so he waited for Dean to get inside the bathroom and gave him a few seconds. He was waiting outside, and when he thought it was safe, he opened the door slightly and peeked inside. The room was empty; if he didn't know better he would think no one was in there. He walked inside, without making any noise, and he started hearing a muffled cry. He spotted Dean kneeling inside one of the stalls and suddenly Cas didn't know what to do. He didn't know why he followed Dean. He didn't know what he wanted to do now that he got Dean alone. He didn't know if he wanted to do anything or just laugh at the other's misery. He was so confused.

Inside the stalls, Dean didn't listen the door opening, he was too busy trying to not to make any sound, trying to calm himself down as he had his panic attack.

_No one will ever care about you. You're worthless. You're better dead. Why would he want to be your friend? He only wants a new toy. That is all you are to everyone. You're everyone's toy._

Dean was trembling against the wall; and he felt sick. As quickly as his body would let him, he opened the toilet sit and started throwing up. He calmed down a bit after throwing up, but he was still crying. Dean sat himself down on the floor, letting the cold under him sooth his aching body. He hated himself for being so weak. He wanted to be able to ignore Castiel's words, but they were loud and clear in his mind, just like his dad's.

"Are you alright?" Castiel's voice startled Dean. _What's he doing in here? Does he want to make me feel even worse? I can't take it._

"Go away." Dean replied in a weak voice.

A sigh was heard, followed by steps. But he didn't hear door opening. All that was heard was the other stall, the one in Dean's left, being opened, just to be closed quickly.

With his head resting in his knees, Dean let out a shaky breath.

"Please… Leave me alone." He begged Castiel.

"No." The other answered him firmly. "I'm not going away."

A sudden rage filled Dean and he wanted let himself be heard. He wanted Cas to know just how bad he made him feel.

Castiel, who had climbed the toilet sit to peek on Dean, found the other boy on the floor.

_This is interesting. But why is he so upset? I just said he was my toy. Only mine to play with. What's wrong about that?_

"I hate you." Dean told him, his voice starting to become powerful.

As he heard Dean's words, Castiel laughed.

"Is that so?" Cas wasn't sure how to react to Dean's words. In some way they hurt him, but in the other, they made him want to find out why Dean hated him. "Are you going to explain why?" Castiel wanted to know so bad that he didn't even realize he had asked the question until it was too late.

Dean's crying calmed down slightly until he was just sobbing. He didn't raise his head from his knees, just kept himself in the same spot.

"You want to know why I hate you?" He asked Castiel, not actually wanting him to reply. "I hate you because of many things. I hate you because you tried to find out who hurt me. I hate you because you hurt Charlie. I hate you because you made Sammy fear what your brother would do to him. I hate you because I thought you were my friend… You made me think I could trust you… And then you do what everyone else does. You betrayed my trust in you."

Tears were falling free in Dean's face again. But he chose to ignore them, he could only think about how hurt he felt.

"I never said I was your friend." Castiel said. "So that one is your fault. I'm going to tell you something… When I want to know something I will do anything to know it. If that means to hurt your friend, be it. If that means that I scare your brother, be it. Because finding the truth is worth everything. And if I had the power to go back in time and re-do things I would do everything the same way again. But then again, maybe not; I would probably try with another way to find it out. I never asked you to trust me. In fact I didn't know I was your friend, it's not my fault that you thought I was." Castiel told him, his voice full of confusion, he tried to hide the smirk he had on his lips when he spoke. "Why would you think that I wanted to be your friend anyway?"

Castiel's words were worse than any physical contact Dean had ever received. One thing was he thinking to himself that he was worthless. Other thing was his dad saying it him. And the worst of them all was Cas saying it to him. His throat was aching from all the crying. He didn't feel as sick as before, but he wasn't completely ok. Castiel's words set him into another fit of tears. This time he let out a muffled cry.

"I thought you were my friend because you came to me." Dean told him, his voice full of pain. "And you kept coming. And that made me believe that you cared. You even let me give you a nickname, for god's sake! Why would you even want to be my friend anyway?!"

As Dean's words hit Cas, he didn't know what to think. He wanted to understand what he meant with it. Was that really what he did? Did he really give hope to Dean? The nickname part was true, but he didn't feel like talking to Dean was giving him hope.

"You have friends, Dean." Castiel hated when people cried. Not because it made them weak, or because they got too clingy. It was because they had too much pain in them, and he couldn't watch people cry. It made him feel guilty for a few seconds, before he realized that it wasn't entirely his fault. He had indeed been the last straw, but that only meant they had more pain in themselves than they cared to admit. "Why do you think so lowly of yourself?"

Dean let out a shaky laugh. Wasn't it funny that the person who made you cry was also the one who was trying to convince you that you're not that bad?

"That's because I only have Sammy and Charlie. No one ever gave me a reason to believe that I'm worth any friendship." He admitted. His tears were now drying, and he felt a bit stronger. That's what people say, isn't it? _What doesn't kill you makes you stronger_. Dean felt like he was wiser than before, he now knew that he couldn't trust anyone. Only his true family and that was just Charlie, Bobby and Sam. "I don't need anyone else. I'm better off alone."

Dean got himself up and opened the door. He went straight to the sink and cleaned himself with water from the tap. Soon he was walking to the door, and noticed Castiel still standing in in front of his own stall.

"What do you want?" Dean asked him, not caring if he upset Cas.

Castiel blinked. Why was Dean so different from everyone else? He could never understand how Dean had changed so much in such a short period of time. Where once was filled fear, was left with nothing. It was like Dean was empty from every emotion Castiel had known in him.

"Why are you like this?" He asked out of curiosity.

Dean seemed surprised with Castiel's question.

"Like what?" He asked, not really understanding what Cas meant.

Castiel gave him a head tilt before answering.

"So different from everyone else."

Dean's eyes hardened.

"That's because too much shit happened." He said before opening the door, leaving Castiel behind.

* * *

**A/N: Please let me know what you thought... I'm really insecure about this chapter! So I need your feedback before I start writting the next chapter! Also, I got myself a beta! ^-^**


	16. It's time to make a change

**A/N: Thank you so much for reviewing last chapter! I'm sorry it took me so long to get this one out, I sent it to my beta, and then I didn't have internet to post this one, because my grandmother doesn't have internet at her place. Today I came to my aunt's place to have internet! So here you have the next chapter! I hope you enjoy it, and when you read it, please remember to review it! ^-^**

* * *

Chapter 16 – It's time to make a change

Castiel was standing alone in the bathroom. Dean had left him there and he had no idea for how long he had been there already. No one had come inside, but he heard people passing by the door. He couldn't move himself. His mind was screaming, and he just didn't know how to control it.

_WHAT HAPPENED?! WHY DID HE SAY THAT? HOW DID HE CHANGE? HOW MUCH 'SHIT' DID IT TAKE TO MAKE HIM CHANGE LIKE THAT!? WHY DIDN'T I STOP HIM FROM WALKING AWAY? COULD IT HAVE BEEN ME WHO CHANGED HIM? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?_

Not only was Castiel confused, but he was starting to feel dizzy. He had too many things on his mind, and he felt like he couldn't stand for much longer. He leaned against the cold wall behind him. His confusion grew as time passed-and as his thoughts played with him, the more confused he became. Dean's explanation for how he had changed wasn't helping. In fact, it puzzled Castiel even more. Saying that he had been through too much made him wonder, was he talking about what happened at school? Or was it something else? Did it have anything to do with who gave him that scar? Castiel decided that it probably did; he remembered how scared Dean was of him finding out. It only made sense that the one who did that to him was the one who made him get through too much; above the fact that everyone in school made him feel like shit. But that must have been light for Dean, since what made him snap was that Castiel made him believe that he cared about Dean, when he only really wanted a new toy. He decided that Dean must have been hurt by someone close to him too many times, that was the only way. He had let him in, only to be stabbed in the back. He could almost instantly confirm that this was what had made him say '_No one ever gave me a reason to believe that I'm worth any friendship_'. No one ever stayed with him; they played with him or they bullied him.

A ringing bell startled Castiel, and he figured it was time to leave the bathroom; he had been there for far too long and the cold white walls were making him feel worse-made him feel small, while they stood proud and tall above him. They reminded him that he wasn't as great as he made himself out to be.

He left the bathroom and walked to class. His face sported a look of pure confusion, accompanied with his usual head tilt. After what happened, he was only certain of one thing; he simply had to find out what made Dean so tough. He needed to find out, or curiosity would indeed kill him.

* * *

Everything felt different. As much as nothing changed, everything was different. Walking those hallways without giving a crap about what others would think made everything different.

He walked like he wasn't afraid; like he was really there, like he really mattered. While he was always the kind of person who hid away from everyone else, either to protect himself or just because he didn't want to draw attention, now he found he just didn't care. He had as much right to be himself in those hallways as anyone else had; and this was something he'd only realized now.

People started staring as they saw him walking by, walking like any of them would, walking with their style. But they didn't say anything, their mouths were open and they couldn't be blamed for it. They weren't used to Dean being so carefree; he had always been the shy guy and that's what everyone knew about him. That's what he wanted them to know about him.

As he walked through the crowded hallways, he managed to get his mind set on what to do next.

_Everything is going to be different now. I'm done with being the one who can't defend himself. I want to be strong for Sammy and for Charlie. I want to be able to protect them if the time comes… It's time… I know what I have to do. It's time to make a change._

Soon people returned to their usual nonchalant state and stopped staring at Dean, who continued walking through them, seemingly unstoppable.

The room he wanted to reach had never been easier to get to. He didn't have to be careful because of possible bullies that he could find (Castiel had claimed him as his 'new toy' no one would dare mess with him now), and even if they did, he could always shut them with his words.

He knocked on the wooden door and waited for permission to be let in.

"Come in." Mr. Lafitte answered.

Dean opened the door and walked inside the room.

"Hey Dean. How are you?" Mr. Lafitte said with an easy smile.

Dean looked at his teacher's eyes and smiled.

"Much better now." He replied in earnest. "But I'm still not good enough. I need your help."

Mr. Lafitte frowned.

"What can I do for you?"

Dean sat himself in the chair in front of Mr. Lafitte's desk and took a deep breath. He swallowed his pride and did the one thing he swore never to do. He asked for help.

"I need you to teach me to fight back."

Hi answer wasn't what the teacher was expecting. It took him a few moments to get the smile in his face again.

"I'm glad you decided to take my offer. Though I would rather that you had accepted it before."

"I know." Dean told him, making himself comfortable in his chair. "It took me long enough to realize that I don't have to get beaten up by everyone. I can change myself; and with that, everyone around me. But to do that I need to defend myself. I want to be able to take care of Sammy and Charlie."

Dean was proud of himself. He was indeed growing up. Not only he asked for help, but he also realized how important it was that he changed. He could be a king if he decided to take the hand that had been offered to him.

"That's the first step. You accepted that you need help, Dean. Now it's going to be much easier. This is what's going to make you stronger. You have all that you need to become stronger: you have a purpose for it. You want to take care of those who are important to you." Mr. Lafitte was as proud of Dean as the boy was of himself. Mr. Lafitte had been watching Dean being everyone's scapegoat for far too long; he was more than ready to teach him how to become the man that he should be.

"I know, sir. That is what made me realize that I can to be strong. I have to be strong because there are only a few people that matter to me, and they are going to be the people who help me become what they need me to be. And that is their older brother, their savior, the one they can come to when they need help."

It was amazing that Dean had gotten there all by himself. After years of thinking that he was worthless, that he didn't matter, to suddenly find his purpose on his own was an astronomical feat.

Mr. Lafitte hummed in agreement.

"You can be all that Dean. But you can also be 'Dean', the one they know, not the person who helps them. You need to remember that you will change a lot while I teach you how to defend yourself, but you also need to remember who you were before. You can't start being someone else just because you know how to fight. You have to remember what made you strong, so that you can become as great as you can learn to be." He warned with a serious look on his face, trying to show Dean just how important it was to remember what made him change, and what was so important about his past. "Your past defines you Dean. You were weak until the moment you realized that you needed help. Asking for help only makes you stronger than everyone else; it means you have an ally, someone you can trust, someone that can help you when you need help. They won't have anyone like that because they're too proud to even think about asking for help. They're convinced they're invincible, to cover up the fact that in reality? They're just weak. They're weak because they use people who won't defend themselves to feel stronger; they're weak because they won't ask for help; and most of all, they're weak because they only care about what others think. You're so much better than all of them, Dean. You gave everything you knew up because you felt that you were ready to become stronger. I'm proud of you."

Dean's mouth was slightly open. He had never thought about how important it was to do this; to get someone to give him advice when he needed it; or even just to make him realize how stupid he had been. But Mr. Lafitte's words were true, he could tell they were because he felt stronger when he decided to ask for help; he felt stronger when he knocked on his door; he felt stronger after asking his teacher for help. He just didn't expect Mr. Lafitte to tell him that his past was important. He wanted to forget how pathetic he was, he wanted to erase every bit of memory he had that would make him feel worthless again. But his teacher's words were true. It was enough to make him really think, and their truth influenced a change in his mind. His pain would be what would make him be great; it wouldn't just be his family, it wouldn't be that he was sick of being bullied, no. It was going to be the fact that he had been everyone's punching bag; it would be the fact that he had been through so much pain that no could even dare to imagine. That was what would make him stronger.

"Then that's what I'll do." Dean told him with a determined look in his eyes. "I'm going to be as good as I can, always reminding myself that I was under their control."

"You will do that, but you will also remember how it felt to be under someone else's control… If you don't, Dean, you will become even worse than they were to you." It was true, it felt true. Dean didn't want to be like them. He wanted to be able to protect those who couldn't protect themselves.

"I know. I'll be 'Dean', the person my family will need me to be, and I will also be 'Dean', the one who won't let himself be controlled anymore." Dean told him with a proud smile.

Mr. Lafitte smiled back as he thought of Dean's words.

"That is all you need to be who you are supposed to be. You are supposed to fight back, to be free, to be who you want to be without people telling you what you can and what you can't do." He gave Dean a thumbs up,, who let a light chuckle leave his mouth. "Can you stay in school late every day?" Dean nodded. "Alright. I will start teaching you how to fight back, how to defend yourself and how to protect those you care about, today. Come meet me by the gym after school."

Dean smiled warmly.

"Thanks Mr. Lafitte."

Mr. Lafitte chuckled.

"You're a great kid, Dean. And I wouldn't have you unprepared for a fight when you are ready to fight. I'll help you any time you need, just make sure that you come and seek it."

"Will do Sir." Dean nodded in agreement.

Mr. Lafitte glanced at his clock and looked at Dean, with a cocky smile in his face.

"Aren't you late for class?"

Dean's eyes grew wide as he stood from his seat.

"Thanks for your help! I'll see you at the gym after school!" Dean yelled as he opened the door and ran to class as Mr. Lafitte chuckled at the boy's reaction.


	17. Reminiscence

**A/N: Hello dear readers! I'm sorry I didn't update sooner, but I had no internet at all, my parents wouldn't let me go visit my aunt, so I couldn't use her internet... BUT I got home yesterday and my beat sent this back to me this morning, so here you have the next chapter... Thank you a lot for your awesome reviews, and all the favorites and follows this story has been given. A person asked me on tumblr how long I'm planing this story to be, and I will tell you that for now I have no idea, as I said before I want things to happen with time, and I have this written until chapter 19 -and I've got the plans for the 20th chapter- but I don't know how much more chapters I'm going to write until the end of this story. I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas, but now I can only hope you had an amazing one ~or any other holiday you celebrate~ and hopefully I'll have the next chapter before New Year, but in case I don't... HAPPY NEW YEAR for all of you! May 2014 be good for you, with lots of love, hapiness and fanfictions ^-^**

**Sorry about so much text, but I needed to let you all know about it, and wish you all a great year. **

**Please review this chapter, and tell me what you think about it! ~Even if you don't like it... Let me know to see what I need to change in the future~**

* * *

Chapter 17 – Reminiscence

He might be ready to change himself for the better, but that certainly didn't include skipping classes. He had always been proud of his track record of barely missing a class -unless it was absolutely unavoidable.

Dean ran as quickly as he could, trying not to knock anyone over yet not really caring if he did. The hallway was almost empty apart from two or three people who were grabbing some books from their lockers. Dean just didn't want to be further delayed. He was in the doorway of his classroom as soon as one could run from one side of the school building to the other. He stopped, briefly caught his breath, and knocked on the door.

It opened to reveal Mrs. Mosely, who gave Dean a rather disapproving look.

"Do you think that now is the time to arrive at your class, Mr. Winchester?" She asked him, trying to make him feel bad for being late. Dean gave her a sheepish smile.

"I'm sorry. I was talking with Mr. Lafitte about some school work. I promise it won't happen again." He assured as he walked to his usual spot.

The lesson went by smoothly; nothing much happened, no one picked on him –he guessed that having the King of school claiming your ass made everyone slightly more careful in their actions. But a phenomenal improvement was that he answered what Mrs. Mosely asked the class; mainly because there was no one else brave enough to speak to her.

It was only at the end of the lesson he remembered that he still needed to talk with Bobby and tell him that he would be going to work later during the near future.

"Hey Bobby, it's me." He told his uncle as the other answered the phone with a gruff "What?". "I was just calling to let you know that I'll be staying behind after school… Yeah… Everything's fine. I just– I know I promised I would help with that car… I'll do it as soon as I get there. –As I was saying, and would have probably have hung up by now if you hadn't interrupted me, I'm just going to get better at something. I'll tell you all about it later. See ya." He liked to work with Bobby. They had always been pretty close and working together was always fun; he had taught Dean everything he needed to know about cars, so that Dean could help in the shop too. There was always something funny happening in there- either someone who thought their car was damaged beyond belief, when it was actually something as simple as bad connection between the motor and the engine, or because the problem was actually something simple like a bad radio connection that would take them merely five minutes to look at and fix. And there were also the breaks, where they would stop for a while and just tell stories about anything they remembered, or talk about their day. Often it was just Dean telling Bobby about how big Sammy was getting, and just how smart his younger brother was. Every other day, Charlie would come by and give them company, because they had always been close to each other and knew each other better than most siblings actually do. They always knew when the other needed comfort or they were in a bad mood or they just needed a good laugh.

Dean was so excited for the end of school day that he was almost jumping in his spot. The classes passed by slowly, making it hard to concentrate, though he kept trying. When lunch came by he sat himself, outside, in a bench with Charlie next to him.

"You know, I'm going to miss this…" Charlie pointed out.

Dean frowned and looked at her.

"What do you mean by that?"

Charlie chuckled.

"No need to get that worried, Winchester. I'm not going anywhere; I just meant that when we finally graduate in two years and two months I'm going to miss the days when we ate lunch together outside to avoid the outrages number of people that eat in that god damn cafeteria. Hell! I'm even going to miss the days when we ate in the cafeteria!" She explained to him with a fond smile in her features.

Dean smiled right back at her –clearly relieved that Charlie wasn't planning on going away–, and pushed up a little closer to her, in order to rest his head in her shoulder.

"Is there any reason why you thought about that now?"

Charlie shrugged.

"Not really… I was just thinking about when we used to be in kindergarten and we went everywhere together, refusing to part… Gosh… Those were the days!"

"Yeah! Do you remember when I finally let you sleep next to me?" Dean asked her, a smile gracing his face as he remembered the past. "You were so happy that you peed whilst you were sleeping."

Charlie looked to him amused.

"Must I remind you that the one who peed was you?"

A light shade of red crept onto Dean's face.

"I was dreaming that I went to the bathroom!" He whined, as Charlie laughed loudly.

People passing by them found it odd that Dean and Charlie were being so loud. It wasn't something that happened every day. It was like they had emerged from their cocoons, deciding to act as pronounced as possible, not giving a moment's notice to the people staring at them.

"I will remind you of that every time you decide to tell that story. I will tell your kids and grandkids how you peed on your bed and then told everyone it was me, when they were all staring at you!"

They were still laughing loudly when Balthazar approached them. Dean suddenly got tense and positioned himself as close to Charlie, to make it easier to protect her in case he tried something funny with them.

"I see you're having fun!" Balthazar smiled, sitting himself down near Charlie. "I was wondering what was so funny… Maybe you could tell me!"

For a second, Dean feared that Charlie would say that he peed on his bed when they were five, but he should have known better. Charlie wasn't going to tell anyone, especially not a Novak albeit the story was trivial, he didn't need to give them another reason to tease him. Charlie just ignored Balthazar and kept facing Dean.

"Oh! Wow! I'm feeling ignored, guys. Could you look at me at least?"

Dean grabbed Charlie's hand and pulled her close to himself. When her face was near enough, he whispered in her ear something that Balthazar didn't catch.

"What did you say? I couldn't hear you from here…" He tried his best to make them face him. When he noticed how hard Charlie was trying not laugh, Balthazar looked at the beautiful green grass near their bench and sighed. "I guess that today isn't my day. Everyone just keeps ignoring me."

Charlie couldn't keep it anymore. She let out a sharp laugh and then it was on. She couldn't stop laughing and after a few seconds Dean was laughing too.

"Are you laughing at me?" Balthazar asked incredulous. "I can't believe that you guys would do that!"

Balthazar's pouting only made them both laugh even harder. Which caused Balthazar to huff in annoyance.

"You guys suck!"

Charlie finally faced him a smile still in her face, making her look a bit younger than her fifteen years.

"You know what? What we just made you go through isn't half of what you make us face on a daily basis. Don't like it? I suggest you stop making us feel even worse." She told him in all seriousness and shoved him out of their bench, laying down on it, placing her head on Dean's lap, who started lightly massaging her head. "Damn Dean! You can give a goddamn good massage! You just got hired by your Queen as her official masseur."

Dean laughed slightly at the mention of their game. They used to role play their favorite characters while growing up. And even after many years, they would still mention the moment when Charlie decided she was the Queen of a land called Moondor and that everyone had to obey to her. And now Dean got a very important position in the Queen's life in Moondor.

"Oh, your Majesty, I can't thank you enough for offering me such a prestigious position. I accept the challenge and I will try to make everything better with my massages!" Dean answered in his mocking voice.

Charlie laughed obnoxiously hard to his statement and his voice.

"Holy crap Dean! You always make me laugh, but you haven't made me laugh this hard in a long time. What was so good about today?" She asked. When Dean tried to make her laugh as much as he did that day, it was usually was because something good had happened and he felt as good as one could possibly be, so she had to wonder… What had happened?

Dean smiled brightly at her.

"I decided that I want to be strong." He told her.

Charlie smiled back at him.

"I'm glad you idiot! I was getting sick of watching you get beaten up every day." She looked at Dean, with her smile fading from her face. "Are going to be strong _everywhere _or just at school?"

Dean's smile was wiped from his face with her statement, and his eyes searched the ground for nothing in particular.

"You know I want to be strong everywhere, but there's too much at stake in there. I can't decide to change with _him _having the possibility to beat up Sammy. You know that I can't do that." He stopped, and raised his eyes to meet Charlie's. "You also know that I wish I could change that too. But I can't lose Sammy. I can't do that."

Charlie gave him a comprehensive smile.

"I know Dean… I just wish things were different." She was going to say something else, but she stopped once Jo got closer to them.

"Hey, Charlie! Can you help me with my chemistry homework?" She asked right after greeting them.

Charlie smiled at her and got up.

"Sure. Let's go inside that it's starting to get cold here." As soon they were off, Dean continued eating his lunch, alone.

It didn't take long for Balthazar to walk back to the bench. He sat himself close to Dean and started talking to him.

"You look pretty happy!"

Dean wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone that could possibly make him mad. He was too happy to let it be ruined.

"What do you want?"

Balthazar feigned hurt.

"Is that how you talk to everyone that comes to you?" Once Dean didn't answer, he continued. "I just wanted to ask you what happened to Cassie this morning. He's acting weird ever since he came back from following you."

"I didn't do anything to him." His eyes hardened with the memory of that morning's events. "I just refused to be controlled by him. I won't take it anymore. You can stop coming after me; I won't do what you want and I don't care if it upsets you." With that, Dean stood up and left Balthazar alone in the bench.

"Did he just say he won't be controlled anymore?" He asked himself, pondering the boy's odd behavior. He also realized he had just been left-no, _abandoned_-on this bench. "And did he seriously just leave me here?!" He sighed, stretching out on the bench as he mulled things over.

_What the hell happened this morning? His whole attitude is different! I can't believe that he stood me up! And most importantly, what's Cassie going to do, now that Dean won't let himself be controlled by anyone?! Is he going to make us do something weird? God, I hope he won't make me do something stupid again!_


	18. Thirty Laps

**A/N: My beta sent it back to me today! ^^ I don't like making you guys wait for very long, so I try to give you new chapters as soon as I can... So you can pay me back with reviews maybe? I want to thank you for your reviews because you guys are awesome and I LOVE YOU! ^-^ Have a nice reading!**

* * *

Chapter 18 – Thirty Laps

The school day ended and Dean was waiting impatiently for Mr. Lafitte to show up at the gym. He was ready to start learning how to fight.

"I see you're excited about this." Mr. Lafitte said, once he saw Dean almost jumping on spot whilst waiting for him.

Dean turned around to face his teacher with smile in his face.

"Pretty much."

Mr. Lafitte chuckled.

"It's nice to see such enthusiasm. I hope you know that you're not going to be punching bags straight away. First I need to teach you some stuff…" Dean nodded. "…about how you're going to predict your opponents' moves and things like that."

Dean gave him a determined look.

"I'm more than ready to learn. You're the one who knows how to teach this, so you're the one who can tell me what I need to do first."

Mr. Lafitte opened the door and let Dean walk inside before himself. The school gym was one of the coldest places in the building. The walls stood proud and tall, with an enormous gymnastics area, along with everything a teacher could possibly need for the sport, it also had some courts for Basketball and volleyball. It was the biggest gym in their town. Every other school had their own gym, but they were nothing compared to this one. Every sports club had at least one meeting a week in there, where they practiced whichever sport they were enrolled in. There were some punching bags hanging on one side, and a small locker room next door. Mr. Lafitte stopped in the middle of the room and motioned for Dean to do the same.

Once they were in front of each other, Mr. Lafitte asked Dean to sit down in the floor, which he did right away. The teached walked back a few steps.

"There are three things you need to know about how I'm going to teach you to fight: _one_: I want you to only use these techniques in defense; _two_: whatever I tell you to do, you have to do it, no questions asked, they will help you and that's all you need to remember; _three_: if you complain I will make you work harder. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" Dean answered just as determined as before.

"Good. I will make you gain some stamina before you start actually fighting; if you can't stay up after running, you aren't up to fighting anyone. When you can run and you're still up for fighting, I will start teaching you how to gain some muscle and how to use it, alright, Dean?"

Dean could understand why Mr. Lafitte wanted things to go like that. It made sense that he only started fighting when he actually had the capability to do so. In a real fight it's important that you know the tactics -both attack and defense-, but it was more prudent that you weren't going to fall to the ground after just 2 punches.

"Should I start running?" Dean asked with an easy smile.

Mr. Lafitte sighed.

"I'm not gonna lie to you, Dean. You have a hard path ahead of you. I'm going to lead you through it all, but I still need to ask you to give your hardest through it all." Mr. Lafitte told him seriously. "And while we're in this, I'm going to ask you to call me Benny; right now, I'm not your teacher, I'm your friend… A friend who is helping you to strengthen yourself. So please I ask you to treat me as a friend and not as your teacher."

Dean nodded.

"Then I will always be thankful to you, Benny." He blushed slightly, but quickly accustomed to this new familiarity. "I will never be able to thank you enough, and if you ask me to treat you as a friend, you can be sure that _that_ is what's going to happen."

"I'm glad you think so. Now, let's get to it. When you can run thirty laps without stopping and not fall to the floor when you're finished, I will start teaching you how to fight. Now… You just gotta start running every day, to make sure you can train yourself as fast as possible."

Dean nodded and started running.

"Will you run with me, or are just going to yell at me to keep running?"

Benny smiled.

"I'm going to help you run when you start giving up, and I will make you realize that you still have many laps to run when you start getting cocky."

Up to three laps it was easy, Dean wasn't running very fast, just a simple sort of fast jog really. Once he reached the forth lap, it started getting harder. He wasn't used to running, he was more of walking type of guy, but he wasn't going to give up just yet.

_Come on, Dean! You only started now! You can run more than three laps! Move your ass! What would Bobby say if he saw how pathetic you are? He'd call you an idjit and would tell you that you're better than that! It's time to start believing so!_

As soon as he entered the fifteenth lap, Dean was starting to give up; he wasn't sure how he was going to endure fifteen more laps, but he kept going. Benny noticed him stopping for a few seconds and yelled at him to keep going.

"You can't be a winner if you won't run all the laps I told you to!"

Dean nodded and started running again with renewed confidence, a bit slower than before, but nonetheless still running.

"That's it! You just gotta find your speed and keep it." He told Dean, giving him the motivation he needed to continue. "You can do it! And if you don't, you'll have to run more laps tomorrow!"

A few more laps went by and Dean continued to persevere. His abdomen was hurting, but he couldn't… No. He _wouldn't _stop running. He promised himself he would run as much as he could, no matter how much longer it would take him, no matter if he fell unconscious to the floor. He would give this his all.

Lap twenty four came and he started feeling dizzy. He could see everything spinning around, he wanted to give up, but he knew that he wouldn't. Benny's words kept playing in his mind. _'You can't be a winner if you won't run all the laps I told you to!' _And Dean wanted to be a winner, so he kept running.

It was about ten minutes later that Dean fell to the floor, completely exhausted, only a lap away from the so desired thirty.

Benny ran up to him and kneeled on the floor beside Dean. He raised a hand to check Dean's pulse and realized that Dean's heart was beating way faster than a normal person's heart would after running twenty nine laps. Just by sheer observation he could tell how much Dean had put into this, how eager he was to do this.

"That was good, buddy. That was very good." He told Dean, patting him lightly on the back. "Now we just gotta get you your strength back." He started helping Dean up –more like raising Dean himself– from the floor, placing an arm around his shoulders before restoring the boy onto his feet. "Let's get you something to eat." He told him, who just hummed in agreement, incapable of saying something more elaborated.

Dean felt exhausted. He had tried his best to keep running, but he just couldn't do it anymore. It was so hard just to stand that he leaned on Benny while they got their stuff from the gym and moved to the cafeteria. Dean was proud of himself. Even if he couldn't run the thirty laps that day, he was sure that he would be able to do it soon enough; he just had to keep practicing. Every inch of his body ached and yelled for him to stay in the same spot. But Dean couldn't do that. He had more things to do: he needed to get something in his stomach; he needed to go to Bobby's shop and help him; he needed to get home and cook dinner; he needed to clean the house… There were so many things he still needed to get done, but he just wanted to stay in the floor and sleep.

"I'm so hungry!" Dean said, his voice half failing him with the effort, trying to take him mind away from anything related to _sleep_.

Benny chuckled lightly. Dean was a fighter; he could feel it. He fought the whole time. He ran more than any other person he had ever asked to run thirty laps; he did it all at the first time. If he ever needed to describe Dean in three words they would be: _courageous, determined _and _hard-worker_. No one had ever tried this much. He could feel that Dean was hardly walking, he was mostly being pulled by Benny, but he didn't care. Dean deserved a full meal, and he was going to give it to him.

Once they were inside the cafeteria, Dean motioned for his bag to fish his wallet out.

"Nah-ah… There's no chance in hell that I'm going to let you do that!" Benny told him, placing him in one of the tables. "I'm paying for our snacks."

He started moving to order as much food as he could when Dean grabbed his sleeve. Benny stopped and looked down. Dean was looking at him with a gigantic warm smile.

"Thanks."

Benny smiled back.

"You deserve a good meal. You did so well, Dean… I'm so proud of ya… I can't tell you how proud I am."

With that, Benny left Dean alone at the table.

Dean's smile spread all over his face. He ran as much as he could and it was completely worth it; hearing someone tell him that they were proud of him… It was just one of the best things Dean had ever been through.

The teacher walked back with a tray full of food.

"Here you go." He said placing most of the things he bought in front of Dean. "You can eat whatever you want, as much as you want."

"Again… Thank you." Dean told him in earnest. "There aren't many people who had ever been this kind to me."

"I know Dean. But I want you to know that I meant what I said. You can find a friend in me whenever you need me to be one. I just ask you that you keep calling me Mr. Lafitte during classes, otherwise you can call me Benny… If you want you can pretend that I'm your uncle or something…"

Dean smiled tiredly.

"Uncle… Nah… I've got one of those… You're more like an older brother."

Benny smiled.

"Well then… I'm your 'older brother' whenever you need me to be one."

Dean ate as much as he could, shoveling the food into his hungry needy mouth, his body relishing the energy and nourishment.

"You're a strange one, Dean. I've been asked to teach many people how to fight, but none of them as ever been so close to actually running the thirty laps the first time… And absolutely none of them were able to stand up and walk after such a little time resting… I'm in awe of your stamina." The teached admitted, his eyes looking at Dean with admiration.

With that statement Dean's chest swelled with pride and his face broke into a rare and genuine smile.

"It's good to know that I'm better than anyone else." He said, both excited and proud to know just how good he was. It wasn't a feeling he was even mildly accustomed to.

Mr. Lafitte chuckled.

"I guess you're right. Being better than everyone else is an amazing achievement. And I'm glad you're the one who gets to be the best of them all. They didn't fight half as hard as you, and you're trying to change. They just tried to show they were better than the other ones; while you, Dean, you have a reason to fight, you want to be a protector… You don't want glory all for yourself, you want the safety of those you care about… And that's why you're the best."

Dean smiled at his newfound friend.

"I'm glad. They don't sound half as good as they should be, if they're trying to learn how to fight. This has been great… But I have work to get to, so… I'll see you tomorrow!" Dean said to his teacher, standing up.

"I'll see you tomorrow Dean." He had almost left the cafeteria when Mr. Lafitte yelled after him. "Dean!" The student looked in his direction, waiting for him to continue. "I expect you to have the research homework I asked you yesterday done tomorrow!"

Dean laughed.

"It's been done since yesterday!" He replied before leaving the room and grabbing the rest of the stuff he needed to get before heading out to work.

* * *

**A/N: What did you think about Benny and Dean's relationship? Is it ok? Do you agree with it? PLEASE REVIEW WITH YOUR THOUGHTS!**


	19. I'm glad we're friends

**A/N: Thank you for your reviews! Thank you everyone who keeps reading this story and waits patiently for the updates! HAPPY NEW YEAR! I want to wish you all an amazing 2014 - I hope you can have your best year so far and that you can have all you wish for! **

**I hope you like this chapter, who is the biggest so far! Don't forget to review with your thoughts and opinions about the chapter!**

**-This chapter might change some sentences... I'm waiting for my usual beta to send it back to me, the beta for this chapter was a friend of mine-**

* * *

Chapter 19 – I'm glad we're friends

Two weeks passed by fast. And every single day Sam would wait for Gabriel after school and they would just hang out. At first it was a bit awkward since neither of them knew each other that well; they didn't know what to say in each other's company, but soon they got over it and started to like being in each other's company.

Once they started having a strong friendship, they started spending as much time with each other as they managed. It was a surprise to Sam once he realized that Gabriel actually wanted to be his friend; they would talk about anything they thought of, and every time they spoke about their families and when Sam said nothing apart from saying how awesome Dean was, Gabriel didn't push him to say anything else about the matter.

They were in the middle of the pathway between their schools and Gabriel had just greeted Sam.

"Hey-a Sammy! Can I come over to your place today?" He asked, not really wanting to be with his own family at the moment; Castiel asked him every day if he had any news about Dean's wound, and every day he answered that he didn't know. After a few times of that happening, it started to become kind of dull and Gabriel liked new things, exciting things… not the same thing over and over again; especially when the thing was something that he didn't want to find out, he wanted Sam to tell him when he felt ready to do so. In the end, he just wanted to clear his head by spending some quality time with his friend.

Sam looked around nervous. He knew that he could never have anyone at his place… Ever. The only time he brought someone over was with Ruby, and that didn't go that well… The worse part of the problem was that he actually wanted to take Gabriel to his place, so that they could watch a movie or just hand out a bit more.

"Sorry… You can't…" Sam told him right away. Gabriel faced the floor, his face showing how hurt he felt by Sam's statement, so Sam continued. "My dad has been working the night shift lately, so he has to sleep during the day… I can't really have anyone there while he is asleep, he wakes up too easily." He lied trying to make Gabriel stop asking. "But I wish we could go to my place…"

Gabriel could see that Sam had just lied to him, but he also understood that Sam didn't feel comfortable enough to tell him the truth, so he didn't push further. What he couldn't stop was the hurt that he felt… It felt like Sam didn't trust him enough to invite him over to his own place.

"Oh…" He said, whilst his voice showed as much hurt as his face. "Alright… If that's the case…"

Sam cursed himself mentally.

_You're so stupid, Sam! Why did you say that to him? He could probably see that you were lying!_ Sam sighed and kept his mental scolding._ I should have just told him that I had to go to Bobby's… It would have been easier and then he could come with…_

"How about we have a walk?" Sam asked, trying to keep his mind away from his own problems.

Gabriel nodded, a bit more cheerful, because even if he couldn't go to Sam's place, Sam still wanted to hang out with him… That ought to be a good sign, right?

They walked until they reached the park and settled for the path that lead to the children's park, the one that had a swing set along with a sand box and some other toys.

"I'm sorry you can't come to my place…" Sam told him after a few minutes of walking in a peaceful silence. "You're a good friend, Gabe, you really are." Gabriel looked surprised with Sam; why was he saying such things? What was troubling Sam? "I've been so alone lately… You have no idea! Yeah… I have some friends at school but that's it. They see me at school, we greet each other in the hallways, we sit together at lunch and then we carry on with our days… When I get home, Dean isn't there yet, and when he gets home, he's always tired; Charlie almost never comes over anymore… I only see her when I go to Bobby's shop, and since neither of us have a day to go there for sure, we almost never see each other! But every day I have something to look up for. I wait for the moment I can get out of school to have some fun with you…" Sam told him as he opened the fence that led them to the park. They walked inside and Sam sat on one of the swings, while Gabriel did the same. "You'll probably think this is a stupid thing to say, but… I'm glad we're friends."

Gabriel had no words… His face started opening in a warm smile, he felt truly happy and he had no idea how to express it. As Sam's last words sank deep in his mind a deep blush covered his cheeks.

"I'm glad we're friends too, ya know…" Sam looked at him surprised. "I know that I seem to have tons of friends, but they only want to be my friends because of Cassie. They want to be popular; they want to rise in the hierarchy…. And there's only one way to do that… Become close to my brother; and the best way to do that is by becoming friends with either me or Balthy… And it's so tiresome! I can't stand any more of those fake friends! You're the first real friend I've had in years!"

Sam's mouth was opened in shock, but soon it turned into a warm, happy smile. His cheeks were slightly tainted in pink and he felt happier than he had ever felt in years.

"I'm glad we have each other!"

Suddenly, Gabriel felt like he could do anything. They were friends, _real friends_. And that made him really happy. He didn't care that his brothers would think it was weird they were hanging out too much without him having any news; he didn't care if his brothers saw him with Sam talking about anything else… He was happy with the way things were going.

"Do you want to come with me to my place?" He asked, his face expectantly waiting for Sam's answer.

Sam's eyes were glinting with excitement. He hadn't gone to a friend's place in years, mostly because he didn't have many friends, and now he had been asked. And there was also the fact that the one who asked him to go to his place was Gabriel.

"I'd love to go!" He answered as soon as he could find the words; his voice was full of excitement that he didn't even try to hide.

Gabriel grinned happily.

"Let's go then… We don't have time to waste!" Gabriel jumped from his swing seat and was almost running away when he noticed Sam laughing, still sitting in his spot. "Do you care to explain what's so funny?" He asked with a light head tilt.

Sam tried to speak, but it was difficult; he was laughing too much to even think about speaking. He tried to stop laughing a few times but he couldn't succeed with his task. He always ended up laughing a bit harder than before. It took him about five minutes to calm down and stop laughing.

"I'm sorry, Gabe… It's just that you look like a five year old! I mean… More than usual!" he laughed a few more seconds.

Gabriel pouted a bit annoyed with Sam, but he quickly started laughing too, it was true… He usually acted like a five year old, but he was more excited today… He was like a kid who had just been promised to go to the park.

"Can we go now?" Gabriel asked blushing, trying not to sound as excited as he actually was.

Sam chuckled lightly and nodded.

"We can go now."

Gabriel ran up to Sam and pulled him by the arm.

"Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!" He said excitedly.

Sam chuckled and let himself be pushed by Gabriel.

They walked a few blocks until they reached his house. It was a big white colored villa with three floors: five rooms on the top floor and three bathrooms; on the second floor they had a game room, a movie room and a library full of books; and finally on the last floor it was mainly a common space that all of them shared: a kitchen, a living room and a dining room with a bathroom in between the living room and the dining room. Every single one of those rooms was very spacy, inside them could fit a lot of people inside.

Gabriel opened the door and pulled Sam inside, before he closed the door he whispered in Sam ear.

"Ignore them if they talk to you, and try to run as fast as you can if you see anyone."

Sam nodded and started following Gabriel inside the house.

As soon as they stepped inside, Sam had to remind himself that they had to keep walking, but it was difficult… That was the biggest house he had ever stepped in, the furniture looked expensive and the chandeliers were the most beautiful ones he had ever laid his eyes on. The walls were full of framed pictures of the three brothers inside; mostly is was Balthazar and Gabriel smiling while Castiel looked uninterested, but there was one, where they were all around a Christmas tree, and the boys were all smiling to the camera happiness glowing in their eyes. The mostly black furniture the house had in the first floor added contrast to the white walls, even the stairs were made of wood that was as dark as the night, shining everywhere the light touched.

They had only reached the second floor when Balthazar came out of the movie room.

"Hey Gabe! Who's that?" He asked curiously, trying to glance above his brother's shoulder – which was easy, since Gabriel was the shortest brother of them all.

Gabriel looked at him in annoyance.

"It's none of your business." He hissed as his brother tried to get closer.

Castiel came out of the library letting the door half open, which caught Sam's attention –his eyes were wandering inside, looking at the selves full of books.

"Gabriel! How nice to see you!" He said mockingly. "I thought you would have been home one hour ago."

Gabriel glared at his brothers.

"Sorry to disappoint you, guys… But I'm going to my room." He grabbed Sam's arm and pushed him to the stairs, making him walk with him.

His brothers let them go, but Castiel didn't look pleased. In fact he was annoyed by Gabriel's actions. He promised to find out more about Dean's situation and now, two weeks later, he didn't have anything to say.

Once they were on the top floor, they stopped to catch their breaths for a few seconds.

"Welcome Sammy, to my room." Gabe said as soon as he neared a wooden door full of posters of someone's favorite shows and singers, which Sam assumed would be the door to Gabriel's room. He grabbed the handle and opened the door.

Gabriel waited for Sam to walk inside before he did the same himself.

The room was full of photographs of Gabriel with his brothers. Sam noticed that each wall was painted in some kind of a map form; he could see Europe in one of the walls and there were some photos in some parts of the continent; he could see Asia, and he saw photos in some parts of the continent; in another wall there was another continent, he saw Africa and there were some more photos in there; and there was a big wall that had almost no space between photographs for the actual wall to be seen –it was The States' wall. The ceiling had posters of Gabriel's favorite shows, Sam could figure out 'The Big Bang Theory' and 'Doctor Who', and Gabriel's favorite bands, such as 'The Spice Girls' and 'Metallica'.

Sam smiled.

"I didn't think you were a Spice fan, Gabe…"

Gabriel let his tongue free and pouted.

"It's not like I'm their biggest fan, but I mean…" He said, stopping for a few seconds. After waiting for Sam to look at him expectantly he let a goofy smile at display and started singing. "_If you wanna be my lover, you_ g_otta get with my friends, make it last forever, friendship never ends… If you wanna be my lover, you gotta have to give, taking this too easy, but that's the way it is" _Gabriel sang every word in the right rhythm, letting some of the words linger in his tongue when it was required.

As soon as Sam listened to the first verse he started roaring a powerful laugh, almost falling to the floor as he hugged his stomach that was starting to cause him a bit of a pain for laughing too hard.

Gabriel looked amused by Sam's reaction.

"Oh come on, Sammy! I don't sing that bad!"

Sam tried to stop laughing, but for the second time that day it seemed impossible to make that happen.

"God, Gabe!" Sam whined, trying to stop laughing. "What did you do to make me laugh this much again?!"

Gabe grinned.

"This is nothing… If you were locked with me in a room full of candy that would be what would kill you… I'm funny when I eat candy, but I'm even funnier when I eat enormous amounts of candy!" He said proudly.

Sam looked at him with a smile, finally stopping the laughing fit.

"You know, I don't doubt that for a second."

Gabriel threw himself to his bed and tapped the space beside him for Sam to do the same. As soon as they were side by side, Gabriel let out a sigh.

"This is so much better when I'm not alone with my brothers…" Gabriel admitted.

Sam let his eyes wonder on the walls and he smiled softly.

"Those pictures… Are they really from where the wall says?" Sam asked.

Gabriel rolled to the side, to look at Sam with a bit impressed.

"Yeah. Actually I don't know why I'm so surprised that you noticed the walls were a map… You really are smart! Almost no one notices that on the walls, they just think I like some parts of the walls better than the others." Gabriel confessed.

Sam looked at him satisfied.

"But there are some continents missing: both the poles and Oceania." Sam pointed out, satisfied to have noticed that too.

Gabe smiled warmly.

"You really are amazing, you know that? I haven't gone there just yet, so I didn't see the point of drawing those places…"

Sam's eyes widened and his mouth fell open.

"You… You… You drew the continents yourself?"

Gabriel beamed proudly.

"Yup! I did it all myself!"

Sam was about to answer, but his answer was something that he couldn't say… His smiled dropped from his face, and he looked away. Gabriel noticed his change, so he lifted his head and looked at him questioningly.

"Everything ok Sam?" He asked, concerned.

Sam nodded.

"Yeah, everything's fine." _I just wish you could come to my house and draw something this awesome in my room too… _"Should we watch a movie?"

Gabriel noticed that Sam still looked sad, but as usual he let it pass, he wasn't about to make Sam feel uncomfortable –especially when he would have to leave soon- and he nodded, grabbing Sam's hand to take him to where he had all his DVD's lined up.

"You can choose the movie if you want." Gabe told him, trying to make Sam smile, even if it was just a little bit.

They settled for watching 'The Avengers', Gabriel snickered some popcorns from one of the cupboards in his room for them to eat while they watched the movie, laughing - and there was also a bit of fangirling, but neither of them was going to admit it.

As soon as the movie finished, Sam glanced at the clock. It marked almost six o'clock.

"This was awesome, Gabe… But I really gotta go home now…" Sam told him as he rose from his seat.

Gabriel pouted. They were having a great time, and now it ended… But something made Gabriel smile… They could always do it again; they could always go to his place and watch a movie in his room again.


	20. Brotherly love

**A/N: Sorry it took so long! My beta's exams are now and she's really busy! I'll try to finish chapter 21 so that she can proof-read it soon. Please let me know what you think! ^.^**

Chapter 20 – Brotherly love

Two days after going to Gabriel's house, both Winchesters were lying awake in their bedroom, facing the ceiling early in the morning. The room was quiet for a while, and the silence was a blessing to the boys, who knew it would end as soon as John woke up.

After a while, Sam rolled on his side to face Dean. He was a bit anxious about what he wanted to ask, but he felt that he needed to do it.

"Hey Dean… What have you been doing?" Dean looked at Sam, raising his eyebrows in question. "You look tired all the time and I hardly see you around… We haven't done anything together lately… We hardly talked in the last two weeks!"

Dean turned back to face the ceiling , enjoying the last moments of relaxation he would get for the day. Training with Benny took up a lot of his time and strength, so these quiet moments in the morning was all he had. If he wasn't too tired, he would enjoy a few contemplative moments late at night too, just enjoying the feeling of his brain unwinding, dispelling all troubling thoughts.

"I've been busy Sammy." He replied, trying to keep the room peaceful.

Sam sat in his bed, thinking about how he could make his brother open up to him.

"I'm your brother, Dean! I think I deserve a better explanation than that!" He snapped, knowing it would trigger something in him.

Dean sat up and faced Sam, he wanted to be there for his brother, but it was not easy. He had so many things to do! Apart from the trainings with Benny, he worked with Bobby every day, he cleaned their house, he did everything their father asked –demanded- him to do, he did his best at school to keep his grades like they had always been –as good as they could be- and sometimes he even helped Jo… What time left did he have? Time to sleep. Nothing else… He was sad that it was like that, but he kept remembering why he was doing this. He needed to learn how to fight, and this was the only way. Sam could live a without his brother bickering in his life for a while… Couldn't he?

"Well I'm sorry Sammy! I'm sorry I haven't been around, but I've been trying to do too many things at the same time." The older Winchester said huffing in annoyance, still trying not to be too loud, or else John would wake up.

Sam, not really understanding what his brother had meant by 'trying to do too many things at the same time, gave Dean a puzzled expression. What could that mean? Was school taking that much time? Or was it for working with Bobby and Jo's mother? Or could it even be something else?

"What do you mean by that? What have you been doing Dean?" His voice came out a bit angry, what wasn't he telling Sam?! And most of all, why didn't he say what it was? Sam was starting to wonder if Dean was doing anything illegal; feeling the need to keep it a secret.

The feeling of guilt trespassed Dean; he hadn't been planning to tell Sam what he'd been up to after school these past few weeks. As the guilt increased, Dean looked away from his brother, trying, hoping this feeling would subside; which didn't happen, it only made him feel angry at himself, for not telling him sooner.

"You don't need to stress over it, Sammy… I'm not doing anything illegal." The older Winchester said, trying to get his brother to stop worrying so much over the situation.

Sam rolled his eyes, but Dean knew how relieved he felt just by the statement he had given him. He was starting to relax, but not completely, he still didn't know what Dean had been doing.

"Then what the hell have you been doing Dean?" He asked, still as insistent as ever, but a little less tense than he had been before.

Dean thought for a few seconds, he was going to tell Sam, that was for sure, but he couldn't help feeling nervous about it; what if Sam didn't agree with his decision? The only thing that mattered in the whole fighting thing was his family, and if his family didn't agree, Dean didn't know what he would do… Sam questioning him, reminded him that he hadn't told Charlie either.

_I guess today is going to be a long day… More than usual at least…_

"I've been learning how to fight." He said in a sigh.

The confession brought a smile to Sam's face. Not only his brother told him what he has been doing, but it's also something as amazing as –finally- learning how to defend himself.

"That's awesome Dean!" Sam chirped excitedly, jumping from his stop to sit down in Dean's bed.

Dean gave him a look to lower his voice, not wanting to wake their father up.

"Can I learn how to fight too?"

Upon listening to his younger brother's request, a smile crept to Dean's lips.

"You know what, Sammy… When I know how to fight I'll teach you." Dean told him whilst ruffling Sam's curly brown locks with affection, making the boy close his eyes and smile, content with his brother's caring actions.

Sam opened his eyes and looked excited to his brother."Promise?"

His brother smiled widely at him and nodded. "I promise, cross my hear and hope to die." He said, placing a hand on his chest.

Sam threw his arms around Dean and hugged him.

"Thank you Dean! Oh I can't wait." He said, not bothering to contain his excitement.

"You know, you need to learn how to be patient before I teach you anything…" He started, only to get interrupted by his brother.

"Deeeeeeeaaaaaaan! Don't be mean!" Sam whined, only to pout soon. "And I'm very patient!"

Dean chuckled."Of course you are Sammy."

The room fell silent once again, and they just let themselves relax, knowing that everything was alright between them once again.

Feeling that he hadn't been in his brother's life lately, Dean decided it was time to know what had been happening with the younger Winchester.

"How about you, Sammy? What have you been up to?"

Sam smiled widely at his brother's question. He was really excited to share the news about Gabriel. They had become such close friends in so little time and that was something huge for him.

"I'm glad you asked! I made a friend a few weeks ago!" Sam told his brother. As soon as the words left his mouth, Sam remembered a little detail; Dean would ask him who his new friend was… That was for sure. He noticed how Dean didn't exactly like Gabriel, so he wasn't sure how he would react to their newfound friendship.

Dean was happy. After so much time, Sam finally made a new friend. After what had happened to Ruby, no one wanted to be friends with Sam. They didn't exactly know what happened; all they knew was that after becoming friends with Sam she got beaten up; most of the people in his middle school thought it had been Sam who did it and others thought it had been Dean, so they didn't try to talk to him much. They didn't want to risk being beaten up. The only people who were kind of friends with him, were the ones he had known all his life: the twins from his classroom Michael and Lucifer –also known as: Mike and Luc-, a cute girl named Jessica –who threw a smile at him every time they walked past each other-, a funny guy named Garth and a girl named Lilith, but not even them dared to be very close to him, just a casual 'Hey' and the occasional lunch together.

"Oh really?" Dean asked, looking at Sam with a smile.

_So little Sammy got himself a new friend! _

Sam nodded, starting to panic slightly.

"Yeah! He's not from _my _school, but he's very funny!" Sam said, eyeing his brother carefully. He was going to bring every good characteristic of Gabe he could, he wanted his brother to think Gabe was a good guy. He wanted to remain friends with him, and Dean wouldn't agree with that so quickly.

"He's not from your school… Then how did you meet this guy?" Dean said with a frown, not really liking the possibilities.

_Could it be someone bad… I don't want Sam to have someone influencing him to do bad things!_

"I met him through you, actually." Sam could feel the cold sweat in his forehead. He felt like crap for lying to his brother; he didn't like not telling stuff to his brother. Sam sighed slightly. He was afraid Dean would condemn their friendship when it wasn't at its fullest.

"Through me?" Dean asked as his brows rose.

_When did I introduce someone to Sam?_

"Yeah…" Sam said simply, his eyes meeting the floor.

_Who the hell could it be? I don't remember having many friends and introducing one to him?! When the hell did I do that?!_

"Are you going to tell me when I introduced you to your friend?" Dean asked. It was better to ask than to think of all the possibilities that would take his mind away from him for the rest of the day.

Sam couldn't face his brother. He was too scared to reply; he was deep lost in thoughts, trying to think of ways to avoid telling the truth.

"Sam?" Dean's voice brought him back to reality, making him face his brother again.

Sam gulped and took a deep breath.

"I met him that day when I asked your friend to take you to the nurse's office." Sam ended up saying, not really wanting to say it.

Dean frowned. That day he wasn't exactly thinking much about his surroundings, he was a bit lost in his own feelings to care about anything else.

"You mean Cas?" Dean didn't want to mention him, but he didn't remember who else could have been.

Sam shook his head and Dean remembered that Cas always walked to school with his brothers, it was known in the whole school why they didn't bring their cars, it was something along the lines: '_I don't want someone to beat my car in this stupid parking lot!_'. Something clicked and Dean knew that there were only two possibilities.

"Which one of the Novak brothers is your new friend?" He asked, is face starting to show a bit of anger.

In a very small voice, Sam replied.

"Gabe."

Sam spoke in such a small voice, that Dean couldn't figure out which name he said.

"Who?" He asked again, this time paying full attention to Sam.

"Gabriel." Sam said, a bit more loudly this time.

No. That couldn't be true… He must have heard it wrong. Yeah, that was it.

_Gabriel?! That douche is Sammy's new friend?! How the fuck did that happen?!_

"Why are you friends with _him_?!" Dean asked his brother in complete disbelief.

"It… hmm… kind of happened." Sam said, not really sure on how to explain it.

"That doesn't answer it! Why Sam?!" Dean asked, his voice low despite his anger.

Suddenly, Sam felt angry. Why was Dean asking him that again? Didn't they just cover that.

"What do you mean _why_? I told you why already, Dean!" Sam hissed, trying to see why Dean was so stressed over this. "You weren't there for me. He was. That's why!"

Guilt crushed through Dean. He knew he hadn't been the best brother ever in the last weeks, but he had a good excuse for it.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there, Sam." Dean replied. "But that doesn't tell me how you became friends with him!"

Sam knew it. He could tell the story of how he met Gabe as many times as he was asked, he just didn't know if he wanted to tell it to his brother.

"Tell me!" Dean begged, and Sam had no way of escaping it now.

"He was shocked that I didn't take candy when he offered me, while he was stalking me… And he came back later, asking how I could not like candy." Sam said, as a smile crept to his face from the memory. "I told him I liked candy and he offered me some. After that we just kind of clicked. I don't know, Dean… It just happened."

It sounded strange. Would Gabriel _Douchebag _Novak actually care if someone didn't like candy? His first answer was _of course _that guy loved candy more than anything else… But was that really a reason to befriend Sam? He wasn't so sure about that.

"Why did you trust him?" The question left Dean's mouth before he could stop himself. He was angry that Sam befriended such a guy; he was angry that he hadn't been there to prevent it; and most of all, he was angry because Sam trusted him, right now probably more than he trusted Dean himself.

"He's not as bad as you think!" Sam told him, anger starting to poison him too. "He has been nothing but a good friend to me! And he has been here! I don't feel so alone because he's there for me!"

His words were like harsh blows to his gut. It made him feel like he hadn't been good enough for his brother.

"You know what? You can befriend whomever you want." Dean told him. "You're old enough to choose your friends, I just hope he doesn't hurt you so much that you come crawling back to me."

Sam looked away, seething with rage, embarrassment and hurt. How they managed to be angry silently was a bit difficult for others to understand, but after having silent fights with each other while their father slept in the next room, it had just become a habit.

"I'm going to get some fresh air." Dean said as he dressed himself quickly and walked out of their room to the front of the house. He couldn't leave just yet; he still needed to make his dad breakfast, and clean the kitchen, but he felt a bit of freedom as soon as he stepped outside, as the cold air hit him in the face. It was the only freedom he was going to get, for a while anyway.


End file.
